Research has found that spending five minutes per day reading is as important to your health as walking 10,000 steps daily, and eating enough fruit and vegetables. The research, revealed at The Queen’s Reading Room event this week, highlights the health benefits of picking up a book that are so often overlooked and underrepresented.
Hosted by HRH Queen Camilla at an evening reception for the reading event at Clarence House, the royal said that: “In addition to our five a day and our 10,000 steps, we should all be aiming for at least five minutes of reading every day for invaluable benefits for brain health and mental wellbeing”. An avid reader herself, she went on to say that as she “had always expected, books are good for us. And now science is proving us right!”.
Queen Camilla was followed by Vicki Perrin, Chief Executive of the Queen’s Reading Room who further explained the ground-breaking study, with five minutes of reading a fictional work “reduced stress in participants by nearly 20%”. This can also affect a range of skills, “significantly increasing our concentration and improving our ability to focus on the next task”. As well as this, the effects of daily reading can be longer-lasting than simply improving concentration: “We found that high frequency readers are significantly less likely to experience feelings of loneliness, important not just for the health of society, but because leading research tells us that loneliness can increase the likelihood of different dementias.”
The Queen’s Reading Room study used a range of scientific methodology, including brain scans and skin conductance to collect over 72 million data points from across the country. Developed in collaboration with teams of neuroscientists, the research is being marked as a crucial step in the campaign to get Britain reading, with the myriad benefits even more apparent than ever before.
The Queen’s Reading Room initiative was launched during the Covid-19 lockdown in 2021, and has become an important online community, currently on its second series of podcasts. Featuring books selected by Queen Camilla and interviews with authors chosen during her time as The Duchess of Cornwall, the charity produces accessible content regarding reading for free throughout the year, with a range of opportunities and events designed to get the nation stuck in a book.
With reading being continually proven to have health benefits for all who pick up a book, and the summer months fast approaching, now is the perfect opportunity to find your next read, and get stuck into a good book in-between your studies.
