책읽기(독서)는 스트레스 감소에 최고

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/news/5070874/Reading-can-help-reduce-stress.html

텔레그라프 2015년 5월 30일자


영국 서섹스대 데이비드 루이스(David Lewis)
6분 독서, 스트레스 68% 감소. 심박수 낮아지고, 근육 긴장 완화
첫째 독서(68%), 둘째 음악감상(61%), 셋째 커피마시기(54%) 넷째 산책(42%)
게임은 스트레스 해소에 도움을 주지만 심박수는 높여.
무슨 책인지는 중용하지 않다. 작가의 상상공간에 푹 빠지는 것이 중요.
스트레스-두통/소화불량/고혈압/면역력 감소

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.

And it 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.

The research was carried out on a group of volunteers by consultancy Mindlab International at the University of Sussex.

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.

Listening to music reduced the levels by 61 per cent, have a cup of tea of coffee lowered them by 54 per cent and 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.

"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.

"This is more than merely a distraction but an active engaging of the imagination as the words on the printed page stimulate your creativity and cause you to enter what is essentially an altered state of consciousness."

The research was commissioned by Galaxy choocalate to launch a campaign to give away one million books over the next six months.