Dear Stoics,

Most of us have a book we’re in the middle of, and it has been like that for some time now, losing to the phone every night. At Stoic, we’re all quite fond of reading, so we thought we’d try to talk you into going back to this book today. Because a few pages a day really can do wonders for our mental health.

Let’s begin with the greatest and most popular claim: in 2016, researchers at Yale followed the lives of 3,635 adults over fifty for twelve years (what dedication to science!). They found that book readers had as much as a 20% lower risk of dying over that period than non-readers. This is an astounding difference, and it held even after the subjects’ wealth, education, and general health were taken into account. Interestingly, the benefit came from only reading books, not newspapers or magazines. The researchers suspect the difference lies in immersion in the story: the sustained mental engagement that a plot and its characters demand.

Of course, as with all studies, there’s also the fine print: it's an observational study, so it can’t prove that books cause longer life rather than accompany it. But you’ll probably agree that the direction is heartening, and it just makes sense.

Now, the question you might ask: Does reading help with stress? To explore this claim, we did some digging and found out that the most-quoted statistic on the internet — that six minutes of reading reduces stress by 68% — comes from a commercial study that was never published or peer-reviewed. We’d all love it to be true, but we just can’t confirm it. What we can do, though, is point to something smaller: according to a study of stressed graduate students, thirty minutes of quiet reading lowered blood pressure and heart rate about as effectively as thirty minutes of yoga.

Some effects don’t show up on a blood-pressure cuff but are just as positive. Reading fiction makes us more empathetic and understand each other better. And good news for all our Stoics who struggle to fall asleep: switching from a phone to a book gives us better and more restful sleep. In a life of interruptions, a chapter is a safe space and a fortress of continuity. Scrolling makes you anxious precisely because it’s chaotic and fragmented, while reading is a way of practising sustained attention — for as long as you wish, a book gives you a stable and peaceful haven. Well, as long as you’re not reading Stephen King.

We hope all the science in this letter didn’t put you off, and that this invitation isn’t us shooting ourselves in the foot (we are, after all, an app): put your phone away 30 minutes before you go to sleep, and open that book that has been waiting so patiently for you to pick it up again. See whether your dreams are a little nicer and more peaceful than before. If so, maybe it’s a habit worth keeping up?

Yours truly,
The Stoic App Team

Every change in life comes with the small and easily missed details that turn out to matter far more than you’ve expected. This week’s theme, On Fine Print, invites you to read yours carefully.

Do you remember that small thing that ended up changing everything, the detail about someone you love that took years to notice, the unexpected parts of a job, or a pursuit you only discovered after committing to it? It’s a week for the magnifying glass that might show you something you haven’t realized yet.

Each day, one small clause of your life, examined with the attention it never got the first time round. Open your journal and start whenever you like.