The benefits of reading your favourite book before bed are truly endless. Not only do you get entertainment, but it will also ease your mind before falling asleep. Not to mention the fact that you won’t be staring at your phone’s screen, which is another big reason why people have trouble falling and having a good and high-quality sleep.
In this article, we’ll go over some of the biggest benefits of reading a book before bed. Not only that, but we’ll also go over a few tips to help make reading before bed a much easier and more enjoyable experience.
Lowers Stress Levels
One of the main reasons we have a hard time getting proper sleep at night is high-stress levels. So, lowering your stress levels before sleeping is a great way to ensure you get high-quality rest.
If you’re dealing with higher levels of stress than usual, opening up your favourite book before sleeping could be very beneficial. Just 30 minutes of reading at night can have the same stress-relieving qualities as yoga or watching comedy videos.
That said, this still means you have to find the right book. So, if you need a book to read before bed, try to find something light that piques your interest. And if you open it up before sleeping every night, you’ll notice a huge difference in stress levels and overall quality of sleep.
Improve the Quality of Sleep
The biggest benefit to reading before going to bed is that you get higher-quality sleep. There are numerous studies that show reading before bed improves the quality of your sleep. This is because reading can put you in a more relaxed mindset, which puts you in a better sleeping mood.
Reduce Insomnia
When you read a book before going to bed, you can reduce insomnia. As mentioned earlier, spending too much time on your phone screen before bed can keep you up at night. Not only that but scrolling through social media can also increase stress levels, which gets in the way of sleep.
So, you might want to try subbing out your phone and laptop screens for a book. When you read a book before sleeping, you still get that much-needed entertainment at the end of the day. However, you won’t deal with the screens' blue light that prevents you from sleeping.
Promotes Longer Sleep
Reading a book before bed also promotes longer sleep. Many adults don’t get the recommended 7-9 hours of sleep every night. But if you read a book before bed, you can get much longer and deeper sleep, so you feel better rested when you wake up the next day.
This is because unlike phone screens, books don’t emit any blue light, which is known to affect the quality of sleep a person gets tremendously.
Tips for Reading Before Bed
Since the advent of phones, many of us have stopped reading before bed. This can make it hard to figure out how to build a proper reading routine before you go to sleep. So, here are some tips to make it easier to read consistently before going to bed.
Get an Adjustable Bed
If you’re looking to read before going to sleep, getting an adjustable bed is a great way to make the experience more comfortable and enjoyable. With an adjustable bed, you can raise the bed when you read. That way, you’re in a better position for reading that doesn't strain your neck or back.
It’s also a great way to sit with sciatica and get instant relief. Then when you’re feeling tired, you can adjust the bed back to a flat position. That way, your spine is perfectly aligned before sleeping, which feels much more comfortable and allows you to fall into a deeper sleep.
You won’t realize how big of a difference having an adjustable bed makes. When you have one of these beds, it’s much easier to watch TV, read a book, or sit up in bed. Not only that, you get full control over the bed, so you can easily put it in the right position that makes you feel the most comfortable.
Get a Reading Lamp
Another way you can make it easier to read before bed is with a nice lamp by your bedside. Keeping your bedroom lights on when reading can keep you up at night because these lights are bright and intense.
But if you get a lamp, you can change the lighting conditions so your body knows it’s time to relax. That way, you can illuminate the book clearly without straining your eyes. On top of that, getting a bedside lamp also makes it much easier to switch off the lights at night and sleep in complete darkness.
Stay Away from Screens
Lastly, we recommend reading a real book. While getting e-books and reading them on your phone is convenient, this defeats the purpose of reading before bed. This is because your phone emits blue light, which strains your eyes and actually keeps you up at night.
If you must read an e-book before bed, we recommend getting a dedicated e-book reader that doesn’t emit blue light. That way, it still feels like you’re reading a book without dealing with the blue light that will keep you up at night.
Conclusion
If you have difficulty getting quality sleep every night, you might want to consider reading a book before bed. Not only does this put your brain in a more relaxed state, but it also tires out your eyes, making it easy to fall asleep.
Try it out for a week, and you will see the benefits for yourself. Chances are that you will not go back to scrolling on your phone before bed once you get used to reading a book at night.
