Reading has always been a way for me to relax. While immersed in a book, it’s easy for me to lose track of time and forget about the outside world. This is why it came as no surprise  when the New Yorker published an article on June 9 that revealed reading has the same therapeutic powers as deep relaxation.

The article, “Can Reading Make You Happier?” says “regular readers sleep better, have lower stress levels, higher self-esteem, and lower rates of depression than non-readers.” While I always knew that reading was beneficial for my mental health, I learned that reading has these therapeutic effects because of this thing called bibliotherapy. Bibliotherapy – the use of books to help a patient suffering from an illness – comes in all different types of forms, like one-on-one therapy and reading groups. But for the every day reader – the most relatable form of bibliotherapy is called “affective bibliotherapy.”

According to the New Yorker, studies have shown “reading literary fiction (rather than popular fiction and literary nonfiction) improved patients results on tests that measured social perception and empathy, which are crucial to ‘theory of mind:’ the ability to guess the accuracy with another human being might be thinking or feeling.”

So, there you have it! If you’re in the need for the deep relaxation therapy, pick up a juicy summer read! And stay tuned – my Summer book recommendations are coming to the blog soon!