A book is “a written or printed work consisting of pages glued or sewn together along one side and bound in covers” according to Oxford Dictionary. But what’s on those pages are much deeper. What we gain from a book is something we cannot gain from any other source.

From hearing about the horrors of our world in “The Diary of Anne Frank,” to the magical world in which Harry uses his powers to fight for his life, books allow us to create our own opinion and understand our own world, as well as fictional ones.

According to insider.com, this is what reading 30 minutes a does to our brains:

Reading strengthens connections in the brain, improving memory, and concentration. This happens because reading a book requires the parts of your brain that control language processing to work. Our brain’s ability to process sensory information acquires long term beneficial changes.

Exercising the brain is just as important as a muscle. “Our brains also mentally process written words as if we were writing them,” Romanoff says. “These processes require mental effort and concentration. With continued reinforcement, there is a greater capacity for memory functioning.”

Feeling stressed? Feeling like your mind is all over the place? It reduces stress levels which are related to aging cognitive decline. Reading can help put your mind at ease. However, what we are reading determines the amount of stress relieved. Reading a fictional story that doesn’t evoke any strong emotion will decrease the arousal of our nervous system. But, reading the news or other material that causes your body to react, may not be as beneficial in this sense.

As an introvert, to me, reading is an escape. It’s something that allows me to recharge. No matter how extroverted you are, taking time to recharge and fuel your brain is essential to living peacefully in this crazy world. Without taking a break from our phone, iPad, computer screens, and TV, that restless, antsy, and bored feeling we have will never subside. Reading allows us to slow down.

Now trust me, I know being in high school and college makes it much harder to sit down and read when we have endless amounts of homework and studying to do. But believe it or not, we have a lot more time than we make it out to be. Think of all the times you take a break from and go on your phone. All the minutes you spend in bed scrolling at night. This time could be spent diving into a suspenseful novel that you enjoy and learn from, that will actually benefit you in the classroom and in real life. Not having enough time is just the excuse we tell ourselves when we know picking up a book is what we should be doing. If you’re struggling to pay attention in the classroom, reflect on the last time you sat down and opened a book.

Some things I do that I feel help make reading into a habit include:

Bring one everywhere you go.
Whether you have work or a doctor’s appointment, bringing a book is a great way to pass time instead of going on your phone.

Read what you’re interested in!
If you read books that are hard or boring to you you will never want to pick it up again. So, explore genres until you find one that keeps you interested in and going back to.

Get a library card.
Books are getting expensive, so getting a library card is a great way to get free books whenever you want.

Start out slow.
Don’t start with a 500 page book. Don’t dive right into old literature and hard to grasp books. Instead, start out with a light hearted or fun book to get you engaged and into the habit of reading.

When you read, put your phone in the other room.
If you are reading with your phone right next to you, before you know it, you will go down the rabbit hole of social media and texting. So set your phone in the kitchen or turn on Do Not Disturb!

Think of reading as a hobby rather than a task.
If you go into reading with the mindset of it being something I have to do, you’re never going to actually do it. Instead, find an intriguing book and think of it as something fun. You get to read this story.

Replace your screen time with reading.
Now I know this one may be daunting, but hear me out. If you spend an average of, say, 30 minutes before bed on Tik Tok or Instagram, try cutting that in half. 15 minutes of phone time and 15 minutes of reading. Continue increasing that reading time and decreasing the phone time until you begin wanting to read more and more. Trust me this works! I also find this helped improve the quality of my sleep immensely.

In today’s world, reading is more important than ever, so I advise you to pick up a book and challenge yourself to make it a habit. You will see how life changing it is, and how if more people stuck their heads between these pages, our world truly could be a better, more peaceful place.