I spend a few months each year in Paris. Perhaps it’s the city’s bohemian history or parade of literary geniuses, but when I’m here I can read nearly a dozen physical books. These are books that would be left unopened if I were back in the United States.
Then I look at my wearable and I notice a 3 BPM drop in my resting heart rate while reading. Another way of saying I’m calmer. A University of Sussex study confirms the biological boost, finding that reading can reduce stress by 68% in less than 10 minutes. That is more potent than music, a cup of tea, and even a walk outside.
Is it the quiet time that’s healing?
In the US, I can rarely sit in peace; I scroll, scan, and swipe my devices. My iPhone is like a slot machine that I play 200 times a day. Reddit, LinkedIn, email, TikTok, texts, Substack, WhatsApp, and whatever erupts from my maddening screen, all demanding their cut.
These dopamine distractions mess with focus, problem-solving, and happiness, according to huge meta-analyses, but I don’t need the science to tell me what I feel myself.
I am not doomed: for a couple of hours each morning, I still read newspapers and magazines on my iPad. I swore off TV news, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter years ago.
“There is part of us that hungers for quiet,” says author David Foster Wallace. Time to “think about something for 30 minutes instead of 30 seconds.”
I can trust books to work when the pills, podcasts, and meditation apps don't. My Oura Ring confirms it, and I feel proud that what I am doing is ‘right’—if not for my mind, then at least for my biology.
Don’t be fooled. It’s not easy to start reading books. At first, my mind resists, and it feels like starting a workout. But one page in and I feel chillicious.
People in their 70s and 80s who read regularly also show 32% less cognitive decline than those who don’t, according to a study from Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois.
I wouldn’t have believed the clinical data if my own biometrics hadn’t shown me the fruits of my labor.
Reading literally slows my heart rate, reduces vascular resistance, and silences my mind. The longevity implications can’t be missed. Chronic stress accelerates aging, elevating cortisol, tissue inflammation, and disrupting deep sleep.
Though three fewer heartbeats per minute may not sound dramatic, ask a cardiologist what millions fewer heartbeats over a lifetime might mean for vascular longevity?
My Spring reading list:
Bonjour Tristesse — Françoise Sagan. A father-daughter tale in France
Short Work — Jack Heinz. A Carlinville, Illinois local boy who made good.
Between Meals: An Appetite for Paris — A.J. Liebling
So Long, See You Tomorrow — William Maxwell. A look back at trauma from an Illinois farm murder.
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead — Olga Tokarczuk. A serial killer in the Polish countryside with an unexpected twist.
Kairos —Jenny Erpenbeck. A doomed romance.
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