Reading Changes your Brain, let me explain.

so i've told myself i want to read more and to be honest i do but netflix is literally calling out to me so i'm just going to put it on [Music] this happens every time in this video i'm going to try to work out how to build a reading habit that i actually stick to i'm probably going to nerd out a little bit about what happens in the brain when you read and then i'm going to discuss three ways that i've been using to encourage myself to read more let's go [Music] in medical school i've been fascinated by neurology so i want to know what happens when we read is there actually a scientific reason why it's so good okay so i'm just going to nerd out a little bit right now but stick with me i promise it won't be too boring but i don't know if i can actually stick [Music] when we read we start by seeing all of the patterns and shapes on the page these images are then sent to the back of the brain where they are processed just like any other next it goes to temporal lobe specifically to an area called the brain's letterbox this is where the black squiggles are then recognized as letters in a word this information then travels from the letterbox to the frontal lobe and other areas of the temporal lobe there we work out what this word actually means and how it's pronounced in an experienced reader this whole process takes less than half a second i know what you're thinking why does this matter jack well i found a study showing that people that read 30 pages of a book each night have more left temporal lobe activity the next morning memory is found in this area so there's been some studies that link reading with lower risks of dementia it's also linked to emotional regulation so this could potentially explain why a lot of people find that reading helps to reduce their stress and anxiety this area is also responsible for verbal recall so it might help you to retrieve your words retrieve your words a little bit quicker although these second two points were only shown to work in the short term so that means you have to build a habit to get those benefits and that's what i've been trying to do right so i've worked out how it works i've got a brief understanding of it so how am i actually going to build this habit well i've been reading the daily stoic by ryan holiday on the kindle app in the morning it's only a small dose of reading it's literally two pages takes less than five minutes my plan here was to trick my brain into thinking well i've already read something today so i might as well read a little bit more and it's it's actually been working it's actually been working i i can justify later in the day to ignore my social media and just pick up a book and read a few pages instead so when i read a book if it was any good i always feel like inspired to try and implement what this book has taught me but then a couple of weeks go by and i've literally forgotten everything that it taught me this is where the kindle comes in so i can highlight parts that have resonated with me and store them to refer back to i tried to summarize them into a notion page but this was too much extra work and i ended up not really sticking to it so instead i've been using this website called read wise and it'll basically send you five kindle highlights and just remind you of your favorite principles from the books you've read so this has actually been working really well over the last few weeks so read wise has helped me to create a perpetual cycle where i'll read a book highlight the best bits and then get daily email reminders of those bits and that then encourages me to read more the only mistake i made on my kindle was getting creative books you see if you read a book like this on kindle you lose literally half the experience because it's so visual the final habit that i've been trying to implement is to set reading times so every night before bed i'll read something and i've told myself it doesn't have to be for hours it could just be a few pages but at least read something this one's actually been quite hard to stick to when i'm tired i just i cannot be bothered so some days i've given myself a break but most days i've been sticking to it and it's been working really well those are my three habits start small make an archive of what you've learned and actually read it and set reading times but this is only the start i'm also going to use this channel to help keep me accountable i'm going to make a book review of the best book i've read each month so if you don't see those book reviews tell me to sort my life out because i need to make them if you've enjoyed this video and want to see more videos of me showing my work both training as a doctor and making videos then hit subscribe and i'll see you next week [Music]

Channel: Dr Jack Close

Views: 3,034,845

Keywords: reading changes your brain, brain changes from reading, neuroscience of reading, how reading changes the brain, changes to brain from reading, brain reading changes, reading changing brain, brain changing from reading, reading is changing your brain, reading books changes brain, books reading changes brain, brain reading books changes, read books changing brain, neuroscience of reading books, reading books brain

Id: AUw7laSlcbo

Length: 5min 44sec (344 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 07 2021