From Boosting Mental Health to Reducing Dementia Risk, Here’s Why Reading Is Extremely Good for You, According to Science

Mounting evidence suggests that regularly cozying up with a book can increase brain and mental health, improve literacy and math skills, and even slow cognitive decline. What’s more, fiction seems to have the added benefit of introducing readers to others’ perspectives

Margherita Bassi | Daily Correspondent

September 23, 2026 12:33 p.m.

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You’ve probably heard the saying that reading is good for you, perhaps in the form of a reprimand from someone who thinks you don’t do it enough. Now, a team of scientists has compiled research on the benefits of reading for fun, particularly in children, adolescents and older adults.

By taking a close look at surveys and studies that relied on longitudinal, neuroimaging and behavioral methods, they found associations between reading and improved brain health and wellbeing, as well as reduced risk of cognitive decline. The findings were detailed in the journal Psychological Medicine on September 15.

“Reading is one of the simplest and most accessible activities for actually supporting cognitive performance, brain health, mental health, but also overall wellbeing throughout our lives,” Christelle Langley, a co-author of the review and cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Cambridge in England, tells Nathan Rott for NPR’s “Short Wave” podcast.

One of the highlighted studies, published in 2023, involved more than 10,000 participants and found that those who started reading for pleasure early in life gained several benefits compared to those who didn’t. Advantages included fewer mental health problems; greater academic achievement; better attention, memory and executive functioning; and healthier lifestyles, including less screen time and more sleep. Early readers even showed improved cognitive performance as adults.

Compared to watching TV or movies, “one of the things that you do when you read is you have to construct the world” in your head, Nick Buttrick, a psychologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who wasn’t involved in the review, tells the Washington Post’s Richard Sima. “The world is not given to you. You have to do the work of imagining.”

Past research has also shown associations between reading and improved literacy skills, as well as connections with mathematical achievement, in young people, according to the review. As for adults, one survey suggested that regularly cozying up with a book fosters empathy and understanding of others, improves tolerance of different viewpoints and reduces stress. It found that just six minutes of reading lowered stress levels by nearly 70 percent. 

Reading can be a social activity, too, with particular benefits for older adults, the researchers found. “Shared reading groups and book clubs appear to provide additional benefits through social interaction. They can help people feel less isolated and more connected to others, which has been shown to reduce the risk of dementia,” Barbara Sahakian, a co-author of the review and neuroscientist at Cambridge, says in a statement.

It’s not all about skills, feelings and behaviors, though. Looking within the skull has revealed associations between early reading and changes in certain brain structures, such as larger volumes and cortical areas in brain regions involved in learning, emotional regulation and cognition. Researchers have also found readers tend to have better connectivity in white matter—the highways through which nerve cells send messages—in areas involved in language processing, as well as increased cortical thickness in brain areas critical for language.

The recent research roundup follows another published in July in the journal Current Opinion in Psychology that focused specifically on reading fiction. While people often assume there are more benefits to reading nonfiction, which contains facts about the world, there are many signs that getting caught up in fantastical stories comes with unique advantages.

Diving into someone else’s world and perspective can help readers gain “better insight into our own experiences, insight into the experiences of others who are very different from us,” Raymond Mar, a co-author of the review on fiction and psychologist at York University in Canada, tells the Post. “It just tends to evoke a form of reflection and contemplation, which can only be good for us.”

Mar and colleagues highlight that reading narrative fiction might help reduce prejudice while improving happiness, wellbeing and social skills. Ultimately, all this research points to the myriad benefits of being a bookworm.

Margherita Bassi is a freelance journalist and trilingual storyteller. Her work has appeared in publications including BBC Travel, Discover magazine, Live Science, Atlas Obscura and Hidden Compass.