Books provide benefits regardless of the reader’s age — and some may not be what you’d expect
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“Just like physical exercise, there are huge health and well-being benefits from reading,” says the director of the Mental Health and Well-being Research and Training Hub at Carleton University.
Joanna Pozzulo. Photo Courtesy Joanna Pozzulo
Pozzulo says that for example, reading helps people sleep. “As you age, getting good sleep is an important contributor to good health,” she says. “Even 15 or 20 minutes before you head to bed can help you sleep. One study reports that 30 minutes of reading is the equivalent of 30 minutes of yoga for stress reduction—it can help bring your heart rate down.”
Another study suggests that reading regularly may help increase longevity.
“Reading can increase creativity and helps build up your cognitive health,” Pozzulo says. “Reading something more than once a week is beneficial to your brain health. Read something you enjoy [as] that’s a benefit as well.”
Knowing this, Pozzulo founded the free Reading for Well-Being Community Book Club last June. “I wanted to help people navigate health and well-being books,” she says. “When I started looking at all the books for health and well-being that are out there, I realized that not all are evidence-based.”
Approximately 15,000 books are published in the self-help category annually.
Pozzulo uses her background to create a list of beneficial, evidence-based books for people interested in reading and learning about health and well-being.
The first book she selected for the book club—which now has more than 1,000 members across Canada—was on sleep, which is foundational to health and well-being.
“The book provided the science about sleep and science-based strategies for enjoying better sleep,” she says. “The best thing is that you don’t have to read the entire book. If you’re interested in just the science-based strategies, read just that part.”
There’s also a social element. Members can interact with each other and set up virtual meetings. “And that, says Pozzulo, “can benefit any age.”
Pozzulo shares her review of these books in a monthly newsletter that is open to anyone and has since started a podcast called, “Reading for Well-Being,” where she interviews the author of the book she is reviewing.
For Sarah Bercier, the best thing about reading is that you can do it anywhere.
Sarah Bercier. Photo Courtesy Sarah Bercier
“Going to an appointment? Take a book with you—it will be more productive and stimulating than looking at posters on the wall,” says Bercier, the executive director of the Council on Aging. “Reading is a great way to keep your brain active and increase neuroplasticity. It means you have to concentrate on something, which may help reduce your risk of dementia.”
Bercier emphasizes there are other benefits as well. Studies have shown that reading enhances your memory, helps with emotional well-being, reduces stress and anxiety and helps you sleep better.
As seniors often struggle with loneliness, Bercier also recommends reaching out to a book club, as it can provide opportunities to socialize, learn different ways of thinking or find things in common with other people.
Bercier says reading can also provide opportunities for intergenerational connectivity. Bercier suggests that older adults read to their grandchildren. “Not only are you creating a lovely bond with them, it’s stimulating their imagination and creativity as well.”
Photo Courtesy Deposit Photos
Once, a woman who was blind asked a volunteer to read to her, says Bercier, something she called “a lovely human aspect of reading.”
Books also make for great gifts for seniors. “Every year, my niece sends me a book for Christmas, of her choice,” says Bercier. “Then we both read it and end up having a great conversation. It keeps me on my toes, and it’s created a lovely bond with my niece.”
“Reading can also challenge you,” says a former lecturer in gerontology and co-author of the Council on Aging’s Smart Aging Program. Trudy Metcalf co-developed ‘Aging by the Book’—a program that ran for five years at the Ottawa Public Library.
Trudy Medcalf. Photo Courtesy Trudy Medcalf
“Each week, we featured writing by older writers on aging,” says Metcalf. Those attending the program had to read and discuss the material at the following meeting, relating it to their life and approach to aging.
“I think it helped them to open up and to reflect,” says Metcalf, who saw an opportunity to close a generational gap for her students with reading.
“I invited my students and seniors from the community to read the same chapters from novels and poems over a two-week period,” says Metcalf. “They came together and discussed their reading. Each group at first felt intimidated by the other, until they realized that they could share their understanding and begin deeper conversations with each other—all from reading. Reading can help seniors stay engaged with the world around them,” says Metcalf. And for younger people, “reading with and about seniors helps them reach out across that intergenerational divide. Reading is positive for everyone.”
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Useful websites
carleton.ca/mental-health/mewerths-reading-for-well-being-community-book-club/
carleton.ca/mental-health/new-podcast-episode-alert/