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Instead of going on your phone or watching tv, reading a book is a good alternative. It helps you to learn new words and understand different concepts that you might not know about yet. Homework, rehearsals and practices can get in the way of you being able to read, but it is important to read even if you don’t have a lot of time.

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There's nothing like the smell of old books or the crack of a new one's spine. (Plus, you'll never run low on battery.) As it turns out, diving into a page-turner can also offer benefits for your health and happiness. There's nothing like the glow of a desk lamp on white pages. Although more and more people own e-books and subscribe to services like Audible on Amazon, it seems safe to say that real books aren't going anywhere yet, and these benefits of reading are here to stay. (Pick up one of these great books for any mood if you need a recommendation.)

Eighty-eight percent of the Americans who read e-books continue to read printed ones as well. And while we're all for the convenience of digital downloads and a lighter load, we can't bring ourselves to part with the joy of a good, old-fashioned book. When we talk about healthy habits, we might as well add reading books to the list. Here are eight smart reasons to read a real book.

Reading Benefits

It increases intelligence.

As Dr. Seuss once wrote, "The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go." Diving into a good book opens up a whole world of knowledge starting from a very young age. Exposure to vocabulary through reading (particularly reading children's books) not only leads to higher score on reading tests, but also higher scores on general tests of intelligence for children. Plus, stronger early reading skills may mean higher intelligence later in life.

Plus, it can boost your brainpower.

Not only does regular reading help make you smarter, but it can also actually increase your brainpower. Just like going for a jog exercises your cardiovascular system, reading regularly improves memory function by giving your brain a good workout. With age comes a decline in memory and brain function, but regular reading may help slow the process, keeping minds sharper longer, according to research published in .

Reading can make you more empathetic.

Getting lost in a good read can make it easier for you to relate to others. Literary fiction, specifically, has the power to help its readers understand what others are thinking by reading other people's emotions, according to research published in . The impact is much more significant on those who read literary fiction as opposed to those who read nonfiction. "Understanding others' mental states is a crucial skill that enables the complex social relationships that characterize human societies," David Comer Kidd and Emanuele Castano wrote of their findings.

Flipping pages can help you understand what you're reading.

When it comes to actually remembering what you're reading, you're better off going with a book than you are an e-book. The feel of paper pages under your fingertips provides your brain with some context, which can lead to a deeper understanding and better comprehension of the subject you're reading about, Wired reports. So to reap the benefits of a good read, opt for the kind with physical pages.

It may help fight Alzheimer's disease.

Reading puts your brain to work, and that's a very good thing. Those who engage their brains through activities such as reading, chess, or puzzles could be 2.5 times less likely to develop Alzheimer's disease than those who spend their downtime on less stimulating activities. Research published in suggests that exercising the brain may help because inactivity increases the risk of developing Alzheimer's.

Reading can help you relax.

There's a reason snuggling up with a good book (and maybe a glass of wine) after a long day sounds so appealing. Research suggests that reading can work as a serious stress-buster. One 2009 study by Sussex University researchers showed that reading may reduce stress by as much as 68 percent. "It really doesn't matter what book you read, by losing yourself in a thoroughly engrossing book you can escape from the worries and stresses of the everyday world and spend a while exploring the domain of the author's imagination," cognitive neuropsychologist David Lewis​ told The Telegraph. We have some great recommendations for books to add to your spring reading list.

Reading before bed can help you sleep.

Reading a real book helps you relax more than zoning out in front of a screen before bed. Screens like e-readers and tablets can actually keep you awake longer and even hurt your sleep. That applies to kids too: Fifty-four percent of children sleep near a small screen, and clock 20 fewer minutes of shut-eye on average because of it, according to research published in Pediatrics. So reach for the literal page-turners before switching off the light.

Reading is contagious.

Seventy-five percent of parents wish their children would read more for fun, and those who want to encourage their children to become bookworms can start by reading out loud at home. While most parents stop reading out loud after their children learn to do it on their own, a report from Scholastic suggests that reading out loud to kids throughout their elementary school years may inspire them to become frequent readers-meaning kids who read five to seven days per week for fun. More than 40 percent of frequent readers ages six through 11 were read to out loud at home, but only 13 percent of those who did not read often for fun were. Translation? Storytime offers a good way to spark an interest in the hobby.

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8 Science-Backed Benefits of Reading a (Real) Book

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Reading a real book can offer tangible benefits toward your health and happiness. Experts share the top reasons you shouldn't give up reading.

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Learning a new hobby can open you up to new ideas, and help your brain to think about something you have never thought about. Homework, practices and rehearsals can get in the way of you being able to learn a new hobby, but it’s important to try new things.

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I don't know about you, but I'm always curious about the world, and always aware of how much I still have to learn.

The day I'm not curious about anything will be a day I personally don't want to see, as I'll either be a know it all and completely deluded or on my deathbed!

Yet in an increasingly connected world experiencing information overload and a certain amount of burnout from that, it's become critically important - and I do mean critically, to curate your learning experience and limit the information highway to some specific side streets and cul-de-sacs of your choosing.

I wanted to talk through how I've been 'easing' back into learning zone post my Business Sabbatical and what steps I'm taking to expand past my comfort zone, increase my skills and knowledge and deepen my understanding and perceptions around areas I'm not often exposed to.

But first let's focus on the benefits of learning something new and why you should want to do this in just 50 minutes a day.

I was reading a piece on Lifestyle Updated about the seven benefits of learning something new, and the very first one was fun.

I thought to myself how often do we, especially as adults, do something for fun. The example they gave for this benefit was a friend who'd recently learned to surf and how much fun they'd had.

I thought back to the 20+ surf lessons I took in Portugal last year and how I was constantly out of depth (no pun intended) and challenging my assumptions about what I was capable of, while learning something new every single time, if not several new things.

I quite enjoyed being a complete newbie to this sport and taking a mix of private and group lessons. I loved how our instructor, crazy Nelson as I like to call him, would draw diagrams in the sand and make models of waves in the sand to illustrate a point.

Along with this there was yelling and enthusiasm, practicing the technique on land and of course getting out in the ocean and doing it.

Full immersion so to speak - pun intended this time!

FUN! Why on earth learn something if it's not fun?

Everything that's taught can be fun, even accounting, especially when you're shown real case studies and examples that resonate with you and make your learning that much quicker and effective.

Another on their list that is obvious but often overlooked is..

A sense of accomplishment and pride.

I know back in 2004 when I had landed my biggest job to date as National Brand Manager at Schwarzkopf Professional, working quite long hours but loving learning on the job at speed, I also took on more learning for the 'fun' of it.

It still amazes me that not only did I start training in January of that year for a bodysculpting competition, I then decided to enrol at Otago University for an extramural 1 year certificate in Fitness Management.

I was also going through Anthony Robbins Awaken the Giant Within book and working on some NLP for past events in my life, and listening to his CD series in the car on the way to work.

Once I'd finished with his CDs I recall listening to around 5 audiobooks (on CD of course) during my long-ish commute...back in the days when I actually commuted.

The results of this year were still my most impressive ever, at least in my mind.

I got straight As from University, and some A+ - proof that when you have experience in time management and a full time job you study much more effectively than when you're doing it full time.

I won my Regional North Island Body Sculpting competition and went on to compete at Nationals.

And I had a rocking first year in my job running the best ever New Zealand Hairdressing Awards - most ticket sales and under budget.

And I felt immensely proud at what I was able to accomplish in just one year.

Naturally there were several things I had to give up in order to achieve that, like a life...no I'm kidding but I did literally eat chicken and brocolli all the time during my training and my boyfriend certainly didn't get the time and attention he deserved during 2004.

So I'd hasten to add learning should be fun, give you a sense of achievement AND fit in with your lifestyle, not take over it. Much like my take on business supporting your lifestyle too.

So what else? Well Jon Lebreton from Sydney, Australia also shared 7 reasons why learning new things is important, what's with the magic number of 7.

My favourites are, and I quote:

You can grow as a person, develop your knowledge base and improve yourself for the better.

Learning something new gets us access to new and different opportunities and the chance to try new experiences that might be the best ones you have ever tried

You could potentially earn more money in your work life from learning a new and appropriate skill or by developing one that links to the work you do. You'll rejuvenate your working life and get so much more from it.

Developing a new skill will influence the way you do things day to day and they will make doing things quicker and easier, saving time, energy and stress.

While these are all obvious reasons, it's worthwhile letting them sink in. Because at the end of the day scheduling in time to learn and the actual act of learning takes time and effort.

But the payoff can be phenomenal.

To cap off the benefits may I point you to a final article written by CCSU Continuing Education titles The Top 7 Benefits of Learning a New Skill - seriously again 7 reasons? I swear I didn't search on that specifically on Google!

The 3 most important ones they stated in my opinion are, and I quote
Your brain chemistry changes.
The white matter in your brain is called myelin, and it helps improve performance on a number of tasks. The more people practice a new skill they are learning, the more dense the myelin in their brains becomes, which helps them learn even better.
Your learning speed increases.
Learning a new skill helps you learn things faster over time. By stimulating neurons in the brain, more neural pathways are formed and electrical impulses travel faster across them as you attempt to process new information. The more pathways that are formed, the faster impulses can travel.
You could stave off dementia.
People who learn a new skill are less likely to develop dementia, which has been linked to demyelination of your brain. People who actively learn new skills don't give their brains a chance to demyelinate, and their neural pathways are ready for new impulses to travel along them.

Perhaps the most important reason of all though is this....

Learning something new will make you happier

According to an article in Psychologies, I quote

'It's actually a core need for psychological wellbeing. Learning can help us build confidence and a sense of self-efficacy.

It can also be a way of connecting with others too,' says Vanessa King, positive psychology expert at Action for Happiness. 'As human beings, we have a natural desire to learn and progress. Psychologists call it mastery.'

There is evidence to suggest that adult learning seems to have its most positive impact on self-esteem and self-efficacy when the learning provided meets the needs of the learner, and when the learner is at a stage in their life when they are ready and receptive to benefit from it.

'Learning also fuels our creativity. Ideas can come from making connections between seemingly unrelated things,' says King.

'Learning something new in one area of our lives can trigger ideas in another. So curiosity and creative thinking go hand-in-hand.'

This can also help with creating what psychologists call 'flow' or 'being in the zone' - when we're so absorbed in what we're doing, we lose sense of time and of ourselves.

'It's not passive, like when watching TV - it's active,' explains King. When we're in flow, the level of challenge in the activity just exceeds our level of skill.

We're also getting instant feedback from the activity on whether what we are trying is working, so we can adjust what we're doing accordingly. As our skill increases, so does the challenge.

So there you have it, more than 7 reasons to learn something new. The reason I've researched into this, above and beyond my natural curiosity, is that it's important to have a foundation of your why.

A strong why linked to learning on a daily basis will keep you motivated during times when you feel you can't afford the time or energy to learn.

Want to read more on Happiness. Check out this great resource on Conscioused.

And in the next episode I'm going to be covering off on exactly that, the how of effective learning and hacking techniques to learn more in less time.

As well as the what. What on earth should you actually be learning?

Tune in on all good podcast platforms like Stitcher, iTunes and Anchor.

Want to test out our Life Pilot tool and methodology for yourself? Join our next 10 Day Life Pilot Challenge starting February 1st. Details at lifepilot.co

Learning Something New natalie sisson quest for freedom suitcase entrepreneur

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11 Benefits to Learning Something New - Natalie Sisson

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I don't know about you, but I'm always curious about the world, and always aware of how much I still have to learn. The day I'm not curious about anything will be a day I personally don't want to see, as I'll either be a know it all and completely deluded or on my deathbed!

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I should focus more on what good things happen in my life such as having good friends, making a good grade on something, and succeeding in my music. Being more positive can make you feel more motivated, and it will keep you in a better mood. It can be very easy to have a bad attitude though, so it’s important to stay positive.

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I can set goals for homework, grades, my music, and spending more time with friends and family. Having goals makes you work harder towards whatever you are doing because it will motivate you to finish them. It can be easy to give up on goals and not want to finish them, but once they are finished, then it makes you feel more accomplished.

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At my house I have healthy food, but I also have unhealthy food as well. When I go to get a snack, I usually want something that will taste good, and probably go for the junk food. If I start choosing more fruits and vegetables instead of cookies or chips, I will feel and look much better.

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The President's Council on Sports, Fitness & Nutrition (PCSFN) is a federal advisory committee that aims to promote healthy eating and physical activity for all Americans, regardless of background or ability.

President Biden issues , renewing the President's Council on Sports, Fitness & Nutrition until September 30, 2023. This Executive Order allows for continued promotion of the National Youth Sports Strategy , and provides for the work of the Council to include a focus on expanding national awareness of the importance of mental health as it pertains to physical fitness and nutrition.

News & Announcements

The first public meeting of the Biden-Harris Administration's President's Council on Sports, Fitness & Nutrition will be held on June 27, 2023, from 1:30 pm to 5:00 pm ET, at the Hubert H. Humphrey building in Washington, DC. The meeting will also be viewable via livestream on hhs.gov/live.

Check out all blog posts about PCSFN.

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The President's Council on Sports, Fitness & Nutrition (PCSFN) is a federal advisory committee that aims to promote healthy eating and physical activity for all Americans, regardless of background or ability.

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Going to bed earlier would help me to be more rested and feel more awake during the day. It will also keep me healthier because my body will have more time to heal and grow. For me, homework, rehearsals, and practicing my oboe gets in the way of getting enough sleep.

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A game plan to help teens sleep better

The life of today's teenager is busy and in constant flux. They have increasing responsibilities at school and at home, their social lives are expanding, their independence is growing, and they're making plans for their future. Adolescence is a time of significant maturation-physical, emotional, intellectual. Sleep fuels these important processes. Good, plentiful sleep is essential to teens' development, growth, and quality of life.

Yet all too often, teens don't get enough sleep. Their hectic routines, their inexperience managing their time and making healthy choices, and the often sleep-unfriendly schedule of the world around them put teens at high risk for sleep deprivation.

According to research, very few teens-as little as 15 percent-are getting the sleep than they need. Short on sleep, teens face challenges to their health, their safety, their performance, and their ability to learn.

Teens are Wolves
Chronotypes change throughout lifetimes, especially during childhood and adolescence. Teens' internal clocks run on different bio time than most adults' clocks do. Teens are almost always, Wolves, the late chronotype that prefers afternoon and evening activity to mornings.
During adolescence, teens experience a biological shift to a later sleep-wake cycle. For teens, melatonin release occurs later in the evening-usually around 11 p.m.-and drops later in the morning. This biological shift to a Wolf chronotype explains why your teenager is full of energy and enthusiasm later in the day and evening, but can barely mumble a greeting or match his own socks first thing in the morning.

Teens' Wolf-like bio time-also known as delayed sleep syndrome-puts teens at odds with typical schedules, especially with their early morning school start times. In recent years, there's been some movement to change this disconnect between teenagers' natural biological schedule and their school schedule. Schools around the country have begun to consider adopting later school start times.

A growing body of research indicates the benefits of later school times for teenagers. Studies have found that when teens start school later:
* Sleep amounts rise significantly. Teens don't stay up later at night when their school start times change.
* Teens get better grades
* Fewer students seek help from counselors and nurses
* Sick days and tardiness decrease
* Parents report their teenagers are easier to live with and more connected in their relationships at home
* Car accidents among teen drivers drop significantly

What parents can do:
Educate yourself about sleep. The National Sleep Foundation publishes a Sleep for Teens toolkit that lays out issues related to teen sleep and school start times. One of the most important ways you can help your teen sleep better is to understand yourself why sleep is so important.

Share what you learn. Talk to your teen's school administration, to teachers and parents, and to the local community about the importance of sleep and the special sleep needs of teenagers. Advocate for sleep education in schools, for both educators and students.
How much sleep do teenagers need?
Teens need between 8-10 hours of nightly sleep to meet their needs and to perform at their best during their waking days. Because their bodies are biologically programmed to stay up late, it can be difficult for teens to get this much rest on a routine basis. The National Sleep Foundation estimates that only about 85 percent of teenagers are sleeping less than 8 ½ hours a night.

It's common for children to develop inconsistent sleep schedules during adolescence. Up late at night and up early during the school week, many teens sleep late on weekends, as a way to recover from the sleep debt they've accrued. But sleeping late on weekends only reinforces and enhances the delay in their bio clock, and makes it more difficult for them to fall asleep at a reasonable hour during the week. This erratic sleep schedule puts teens in a vicious cycle, in which they spend the week coping with a growing sleep debt, struggling to stay alert during the day, growing more and more tired as the week goes along. By the weekend they're exhausted and ready to sleep in-and the cycle begins all over again.

What can parents do:
Work with your teen to help them stay on a consistent schedule throughout the week and weekend. Set a bedtime and wake time that allows them to get the nightly sleep they need. (Every teen will be different, so pay attention to signs of sleep deprivation and adjust their targeted sleep amount accordingly.) On the weekends, it's okay to let teens sleep in a little bit. An extra 30 minutes or an hour won't throw off their bio clocks, and won't leave them wide awake at midnight on Sunday evening. But keep the weekend sleep-ins to no more than 60 minutes of additional rest.

Why sleep matters for teens
For teenagers, sleep is nothing less than fuel that powers their brain and its development. Sleep is a biological necessity and essential for health and daily functioning. It's as important as a healthy diet and regular physical activity. At all stages of life, the brain is active during sleep-consolidating memories and processing emotions, refreshing cells and clearing out build-up of waste materials that can slow or damage brain function. (There's still a lot we don't know yet about what's happening in the brain during sleep, and why.)

In adolescence, the brain is still developing, and sleep is essential to healthy brain development. The brain's pre-frontal cortex-responsible for complex thinking and decision making, as well as emotional regulation-is among the last areas of the brain to develop, and undergoes significant maturation during teenage years. This part of the brain is especially sensitive to the effects of sleep deprivation.

Short on sleep teens are at risk for a wide range of intellectual, social, emotional and behavioral problems. Insufficient sleep in teens is linked to:

Cognitive issues
* Trouble with memory
* Diminished focus and attention
* Difficulty learning
* Poor judgment and decision making
* Reduced ability to problem solve

Behavioral and social issues
* Greater tendency to engage in risky behaviors, including smoking, drinking, and drug use
* Hyperactivity
* Aggressiveness, more prone to violence
* Social withdrawal
* Difficulty getting along with others

Emotional issues
* Irritability and impaired moods
* More negative attitude and outlook
* Trouble controlling emotions
* Greater risks for depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts

Academic and performance issues
* Lower grades
* Poor academic performance
* More frequent absence and tardiness

What parents can do
Prioritize sleep over late-night studying. Parents might think it's worth it to allow teens to sacrifice some sleep for the sake of studying for a test. But research shows that teens who burn the midnight oil with homework are more likely to have trouble with their academic work the next day, including performing worse on tests and quizzes. Help your teen carve out time for homework so that it doesn't compete with her regular bedtime.

Teach your teen the importance of sleep. Teens are interested in how things work in the world-and why issues and choices matter. Spend some time educating your child about sleep-what it does for their minds and bodies and why it is so important to their health and their success. They're likely to be more amenable to the sleep rules you lay out if they understand why the rules exist.

Sleep and safety: teens behind the wheel
There are serious safety risks for teens who don't get enough sleep. Insufficient sleep in teenagers raises their risks for sports injuries and other accidental injuries. One especially significant safety risk faced by sleep-deprived teens? Drowsy driving.

New and inexperienced drivers and sleepiness behind the wheel are a dangerous combination. According to research, teens are more than twice as likely to be involved in car accidents if they have slept poorly or felt sleepy while driving. More than half of sleep-related driving accidents involve drivers who are 25 years or younger. And nearly one-quarter of young adults report driving faster when they are tired and drowsy.

Drowsy driving is very similar to drunk driving. Research shows that being even a few hours short on sleep-sleeping 4-5 hours a night-may make drivers as impaired behind the wheel as driving drunk.

When teens don't get their recommended 8-10 hours of sleep a night on a regular basis, they are much more likely to be compromised behind the wheel, putting themselves and others at risk.
What parents can do:
Make driving rested as important as driving sober. You have a zero-tolerance policy you're your teens about driving under the influence, right? Establish the same policy for drowsy driving.

Teach your teens to recognize the signs of drowsy driving, including:
* Repeated yawning and blinking
* Drifting out of their lane
* Trouble remembering the miles they've just driven
* Hitting the rumble strip at the edge of the road

Be a sleep-safety role model. Don't drive drowsy yourself. By prioritizing sleep and knowing when it isn't safe for you to drive, you're modeling strong sleep behaviors and good judgment for your teens.

Teens, technology and sleep
You don't need me to tell you that teenagers today are immersed in technology. Social media and digital devices are constant presences in most teens' daily lives. Used without limits or awareness, technology can undermine sleep for teens.

More than 90 percent of teenagers use some form of digital technology in the hour before bedtime. Exposure to light from digital devices can delay the release of melatonin and push back sleep. This is especially problematic for teens who are already biologically pre-disposed to late sleep onset. Mental stimulation can keep teens' minds active and alert at bedtime, which also may interfere with both sleep quantity and sleep quality. Research indicates that more highly interactive forms of technology-video games, cell phones, laptops and tablets-are more likely to interfere with sleep and lead to unrefreshing sleep.

The use of technology in the evenings is a major factor that can threaten teens' sleep. But overall technology habits may also play a role. There is emerging evidence that heavy social media use by young adults is linked to sleep problems as well as greater risk for depression.
What parents can do
Make bedrooms tech free. Your teen may resist, but the easiest and most effective way to stop technology from interfering with your teens' sleep is to leave the cell phones and screens out of the bedroom. No nighttime light to interfere with your teen's natural drowsiness, no middle of the night news alerts or texts buzzing on the phone at their bedside. Set up a central charging station somewhere in the house, and have your teens leave their phones and laptops there for the night. Set a digital cut off time for your household, a last-call for tweeting and Instagramming.

Pay attention to your teens' social media and tech habits. Monitor not only your child's interactions on social media, but their level of activity. Heavy use of social media and digital technology (the Internet, video games) may hurt your teen's sleep, evening if they're powering down at an appropriate time before bed.
Other tips for helping your teen sleep better:
Keep bedrooms cool. In addition to being dark and tech-free, a cool bedroom can help teens fall asleep more easily. In the evening, body temperature drops in preparation for sleep. A cool room enhances that internal temperature drop, and can help teens feel more sleepy, earlier. A warm bath or shower 90 minutes before bedtime can also help.

No exercise within 4 hours of bedtime. Exercise raises core body temperature, which can keep teens alert and interfere with their ability to wind down for sleep. That nighttime indoor soccer match that doesn't finish until 9 p.m. may result in bedtime being pushed back, and a tired teen the next day. Have your teen wrap up all vigorous physical activity 4 hours before their scheduled lights out.

As parents, you can help your teenagers establish habits and attitudes about sleep that they will carry with them throughout their lifetimes.

Sweet Dreams,

Michael J. Breus, PhD
The Sleep Doctor™
www.thesleepdoctor.com

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av_textblock size=" font_color=" color="] A game plan to help teens sleep better The life of today's teenager is busy and in constant flux. They have increasing responsibilities at school and at home, their social lives are expanding, their independence is growing, and they're making plans for their future.