Reading is a weighty life pro home enchanting pleasure. Delving into a good book is a great option to pass an hour in complete silence, get distracted on a flight, or unwind after a long day. After the 21st century, amazon introduced its popular kindle e-reader. (Followed by barnes & noble nook e-book in 2009). At the time, it was just a way for companies to simply sell more books. They were advertised as a convenient and inexpensive way to download multiple books on a single device. They were later sold as a way to help children read. But research shows something got lost along the way. We spoke with naomi s. Baron, professor emeritus of linguistics at american university in washington, dc, and author of how we read now: strategic choices for print, screen and audio, published by oxford university press. She told us (and did the research) about the many benefits of reading print. Here are six of them. You learn more by reading a paper book There are fewer distractions in printed books Physical books cause less eye strain than e-books The impact of printed books can improve children's academic performance Real books can improve sleep Science says… Books make us feel good 1. You will learn more by reading a physical book “When students start reading academically,” baron says, “it’s likely that a little bird in your head is telling you that you should focus on what you read, you should learn from it. What's really happening is that we don't concentrate as much when we read digitally.” This is according to the baron study, which collected more than 400 university students between 2013 and 2015, and even more a large study conducted in 2018 by ucla researcher dr. Diane mizrachi and her colleagues conducted an even larger study involving more than 10,000 students. One reason is what baron calls the problem of thinking. “There are all sorts of studies that show that our minds probably wander more when we read digitally,” she says. Baron says we don’t just let our minds wander , but we assume we can read important information with the same laid-back digital reading mindset we use to check social media, read sports scores, headlines, or yelp reviews. Research with students grades 5 and 6, and with adults in israel and the us, showed a discrepancy between how students thought they would handle sat-style essay questions (when they read a passage and answer questions) and how they actually did. “They think they're better in digital, but they're actually better in print, again, statistically,” says baron. “It's not 100 percent. They think digital is better, but print is better. And i think it's a good testament to the mindset we're bringing to digital reading.” 2. There are fewer distractions in printed books When people settle in to read the latest print must-read novel, they don't get a notification that someone just took a picture of their food or that the atlanta braves just beat the washington nationals. “Unless you turned off all notifications, the digital reader is meant to interrupt the game,” says baron. After after your reading session was interrupted by a notification and you started multitasking, it's hard for you to start reading again. In fact, one study found that 67 percent of people using e-readers or other devices can't read more than 10 minutes before they start multi-tasking at the same time. The baron suggests turning off the internet or switching the device to airplane mode. 3. Physical books cause less eye strain than e-books Despite the fact that people experience eye strain when reading on both media, reading on the screen is much worse. “If you look at what students say – ‘my eyes hurt’, ‘my head hurts’ – they overwhelmingly noticed more eye strain when reading digitally,” says baron. There are several reasons for this eye strain. Says baron and other experts, including dr. Ken nischal, pediatric ophthalmologist and professor of ophthalmology at the university of pittsburgh.Dr. Nischal's comments were made during a webinar hosted by children and screens: institute of digital media and child development. Nischal claims that when a child (or any other person for that matter) looks at a screen, they blink less, reducing the tear film in their eyes. When the eyes dry out, the muscles around the eyes hurt. This causes blurred vision and pain. In addition, the contrast between a printed and digital page can also be too harsh or bright. Tip: stick to the 20-20-20 rule when reading digital - pause every 20 minutes for 20 seconds look at a distance of 20 feet (6 meters). 4. Exposure to printed books can improve children's academic performance Study published june 2014 in oxford academics , showed that “the number of books in the family home has a strong influence on the academic performance” of students. The authors of the study examined data on the performance of more than 200,000 students from 42 countries participating in the organization for economic co-operation and development (oecd) program for international student assessment (pisa). (Pisa is administered to 15-year-olds in oced countries and assesses math, reading, and science.) Baron agrees, but with reservations. “Just because you have 2,000 books, even for kids, doesn't mean they'll read them,” she says. While she acknowledges that there are many relationships between the number of books a family owns and a child's reading grades, she also asks, “how much do books have to do with parents' education and what else do they do?” What they do with their children, the standards they set, control over homework, and so on.” Baron says she also looks at something called the “fantasy effect,” correlation between the length of a book, especially fiction, and reading comprehension on standardized tests. “We know how much you read certain things matters,” she says. “The same ratio is not found in magazines, newspapers or comics. This is the volume of the book and fiction.” 5. Real books can improve sleep There are many studies that show that reading on digital devices such as phones and e-books has a negative effect on sleep. In a 2015 study, researchers at brigham and women's hospital in boston, massachusetts found that study participants who read digital books took longer to fall asleep and were less sleepy, secreting less melatonin (a hormone that controls the sleep-wake cycle). ) Experienced an altered circadian rhythm and were less alert the next morning than when reading a printed book. And mind, time to relax. 6. Science says… Books make us feel good Despite all the flash and hiss of digital readers, people still love to hold real books in their hands. “Students love the smell of books,” says baron, citing his research. “Who knew? Students talked about touching books, holding them in their hands, finding something in a book. Read it in print and digitally, if you're asked “where in history it happened and when in the line of events”, you'll remember better when you read it in print. It's probably due to the tactile feeling of being able to physically find it in a book. And we have such evidence from preschoolers to college students.” This is interestingbaron says e-books can have a positive effect in encouraging reluctant readers and helping children with learning problems such as dyslexia. Text space on the screen due to the spacing between letters and lines can improve reading comprehension.