Reading is better than tea...

It's true. The Daily Telegraph from London writes:


Reading 'can help reduce stress'
Reading is the best way to relax and even six minutes can be enough to reduce the stress levels by more than two thirds, according to new research conducted on a group of volunteers at the University of Sussex.

Reading works better and faster than other methods to calm frazzled nerves, such as listening to music, going for a walk or settling down with a cup of tea, research found.

Psychologists believe this is because the human mind has to concentrate on reading and the distraction of being taken into a literary world eases the tensions in muscles and the heart.

Their stress levels and heart rate were increased through a range of tests and exercises before they were then tested with a variety of traditional methods of relaxation.

Reading worked best, reducing stress levels by 68 per cent, said cognitive neuropsychologist Dr David Lewis.

Subjects only needed to read, silently, for six minutes to slow down the heart rate and ease tension in the muscles, he found. In fact it got subjects to stress levels lower than before they started.

Reading reduced stress by 68 percent
Listening to music reduced the levels by 61 per cent
Having a cup of tea of coffee lowered them by 54 per cent
Taking a walk by 42 per cent.
Playing video games brought them down by 21 per cent from their highest level but still left the volunteers with heart rates above their starting point.

Dr. Lewis, who conducted the test, said: "Losing yourself in a book is the ultimate relaxation. This is particularly poignant in uncertain economic times when we are all craving a certain amount of escapism."

-- posted by Helen