How Does Reading Reduce Stress? 35 Statistics on Reading, Thrillers and Your Heart Rate

There is a specific feeling when a book has you: you check the clock, it’s 1am, you do the math on how much sleep you can survive on, and you keep going anyway. And as a thriller author, I have studied this very closely to try and build my craft and be able to pull this off.

Did you know that suspense gives you actual, measurable tunnel vision? In a 2015 Georgia Tech brain-imaging study, researchers put people in an MRI, played them scenes from movies like Alien and Misery, and flashed checkerboard patterns at the edges of the screen the whole time. At the moments of peak suspense, the viewers’ brains stopped processing the edges.

So I went looking for every study I could find on what reading, and scary stories in particular, does to your heart, your sleep and your stress.

Key takeaways

• According to a Seton Hall University study, 30 minutes of reading lowered blood pressure and heart rate as much as 30 minutes of yoga, even though the students didn’t feel less stressed.
• In a Yale School of Public Health study, book readers over 50 had a 20% lower risk of dying over 12 years than non-readers. That’s a correlation, not proof that books did it.
• Researchers at Aarhus University’s Recreational Fear Lab found people enjoy being moderately scared more than being barely scared or terrified.
• In the only public trace of it, a Tes report, the famous six-minutes-cuts-stress-by-68% number comes from an unpublished report paid for by a chocolate brand.
• According to the University of Florida, the share of Americans who read for pleasure on a given day fell by more than 40% in 20 years.

How I picked these statistics

Every number below links to the university, journal or research body that ran the study, never to a summary of it. Where a study was paid for by a company, or where people rated their own stress instead of having it measured, I say so, because feeling calmer and having your blood pressure drop are different findings. Most of the body-measurement research on fear was done in a haunted house in Denmark, not a library, so I flag every study about horror movies or haunted houses instead of books.

How does reading change your stress levels and heart rate?

1. Your body relaxes before your brain gets the memo

According to a Seton Hall University study of 22 graduate students, 30 minutes of reading lowered systolic and diastolic blood pressure and heart rate as much as 30 minutes of yoga or comedy. When the same students rated their own stress, the scores didn’t change significantly after any of the three. Twenty-two students is a tiny study, so treat it as a promising start.

2. That stat on the library poster? Nobody can find the study

According to Tes, the claim that six minutes of reading cuts stress by 68% traces back to a 2009 report called Galaxy Stress Research by Mindlab International, a private consultancy often described as being at the University of Sussex, and it was commissioned by Galaxy chocolate. The methods were never published, and the sources that repeat it don’t even agree on what the 68% measured. I’m including it so you know to stop quoting it.

3. A book beats a glass of wine

According to a 2016 survey by the University of Liverpool’s Centre for Research into Reading, Literature and Society, 38% of UK adults picked reading as their go-to cure for stress, and 35% said books comfort them when they’re down, compared with 31% who reached for wine. Galaxy chocolate paid for this one too, on behalf of the adult literacy charity Quick Reads, and it measures opinions, not heart rates.

What are the benefits of reading fiction for your brain and your lifespan?

Researchers have tested the benefits of reading fiction on lifespan, memory and empathy, and the biggest result so far comes from a 12-year Yale study of book readers over 50.

4. The habit that showed up in 12 years of death records

According to the Yale School of Public Health, which followed 3,635 Americans over 50 for 12 years, people who read books had a 20% lower risk of dying, even after adjusting for age, sex, education, health, wealth, marital status and depression. Before those adjustments, the book readers lived about 23 months longer. It’s a correlation, so it can’t prove the books did it.

5. What a weekly reading habit did to brains over 14 years

In a 14-year study by Taiwan’s National Health Research Institutes, adults 64 and older who read at least once a week were roughly half as likely to show cognitive decline 6, 10 and 14 years later (1,962 people, adjusted odds ratio 0.54). Again, a correlation.

6. A volcano thriller rewired readers’ brains for days

According to Emory University, which scanned 21 people’s brains on 19 consecutive days while they read Robert Harris’s Pompeii a chunk each evening, connectivity in their resting brains rose the morning after each reading, and some changes lasted several days after they finished the book. This is my favorite one.

7. The empathy study three labs couldn’t repeat

In a 2013 paper in Science, David Comer Kidd and Emanuele Castano of The New School found that people who read a short piece of literary fiction then scored higher on tests of reading other people’s emotions than people who read popular fiction, nonfiction or nothing. When researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, Pace University, Boston College and the University of Oklahoma reran it with the original materials, they couldn’t reproduce the boost.

8. So does fiction make you nicer?

According to a Princeton University analysis that pooled 14 experiments, reading fiction caused a small but statistically significant improvement in understanding other people compared with reading nonfiction or nothing (effect size g = .15 to .16).

9. The age when reading for fun matters most

In a study of 10,243 American adolescents by the University of Cambridge, Fudan University and the University of Warwick, children who started reading for pleasure early had better test scores and fewer mental health problems as young teens, and about 12 hours a week was the best amount.

10. The study that found no effect at all

According to the University of Edinburgh and the University of Zurich, which followed about 1,500 Swiss teenagers from 13 to 20, how often they read had no significant effect on anxiety or depression once other factors were accounted for. Not every study agrees, and I’d rather show you that than hide it.

11. Why a good story can change your mind

In four experiments with up to 274 students, Melanie Green and Timothy Brock at Ohio State University found that readers who were more absorbed in a story took on more of its beliefs and noticed fewer false notes. They called it being transported, which is the researchers’ word for that 1am feeling.

Does reading before bed help you sleep?

12. The cheapest sleep aid on your nightstand

In a randomized trial by the University of Galway, 42% of people told to read a book in bed for seven nights said their sleep improved, compared with 28% of people told not to. The sleep was self-rated, and everyone knew which group they were in.

13. Paperback or e-reader before bed?

According to Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, which kept 12 young adults in a lab for two weeks, reading on a light-emitting e-reader instead of a printed book cut evening melatonin by about 55% and added nearly 10 minutes to the time it took to fall asleep. This one was measured, not self-reported. Paperback for bedtime.

Why do people like thrillers? What suspense does to your brain

Why do people like thrillers if they make your heart race? According to the brain-scan research, suspense narrows your attention to the story and lights up the parts of your brain that predict what happens next.

14. What suspense does to your peripheral vision

According to the Georgia Tech study from the top of this post, which scanned 19 young adults watching 10 suspense clips including North by Northwest, Alien and Misery, activity in the brain areas that handle side vision dropped as suspense rose while central vision stayed active.

15. A brain scan of someone reading a horror story

At Freie Universität Berlin, 23 adults read E.T.A. Hoffmann’s horror story The Sandman inside a brain scanner, and the passages they rated most suspenseful activated the areas used for predicting events and for working out what other people are thinking. It’s the closest study I found to measuring someone’s brain while they READ suspense.

16. What your heart does during the scariest scene

According to Aarhus University, listeners’ heart rate variability tracked how emotionally intense a story was, and the most intense passages activated the amygdala, the brain’s threat center. These participants heard the story rather than read it.

17. Why a slow burn feels nothing like a jump scare

When the University of Turku scanned 37 adults watching full-length horror films, slowly building dread boosted the brain’s seeing and hearing areas, while sudden scares hit the amygdala, brainstem and thalamus.

Why do we like scary stories? What fear researchers found

Why do we like scary stories at all? According to Aarhus University’s Recreational Fear Lab, which straps heart-rate monitors on visitors at a haunted house in Vejle, Denmark, it comes down to how scared you get.

18. There’s a perfect amount of scared

According to the Recreational Fear Lab, which monitored the heart rates of 110 haunted house visitors aged 12 to 57, enjoyment followed an upside-down U: moderately scared people enjoyed it more than barely scared or terrified ones. Feeling frightened rose with big heart-rate swings, while enjoyment peaked at small ones. The study was partly funded by the LEGO Foundation and run at a commercial attraction.

19. Your heart rate in a haunted house

In a 2025 Aarhus University study of 113 visitors, the average heart rate during the roughly 51-minute walk-through was 111.1 beats per minute, while standing in a dark hallway.

20. What happened to their blood work three days later

According to the same Aarhus study, 18 of the 22 visitors who arrived with low-grade inflammation (82%) had lower levels three days later. Overall, the share of people with inflammation didn’t change significantly, and there was no control group, so don’t book a scare instead of a doctor.

21. What happens when you get scared with friends

When Aarhus University and the University of Sussex gave heart-rate monitors to 347 haunted house visitors in 2026, friends’ heartbeats fell into sync, more so for close friends, and stronger sync went with feeling more keyed up.

22. Who walked out of the haunted house happier

According to the University of Pittsburgh, which surveyed 262 adults at an extreme haunted attraction, moods improved afterward, especially for people who arrived tired, bored or stressed, and their brains reacted less to later tasks. There was no control group, so it’s a before-and-after result.

23. How horror fans got through 2020

According to Aarhus University and Penn State, which surveyed 310 adults during COVID-19, horror fans showed more resilience than non-fans, and fans of apocalypse, alien-invasion and zombie stories were both more resilient and better prepared. It’s a correlation, so it doesn’t show the movies caused it.

24. Morbid curiosity is a measurable trait

Coltan Scrivner at the University of Chicago built a scale for morbid curiosity, and the trait predicted more than half the variation (53%) in whether 137 adults chose to look more closely at a disturbing image instead of a neutral one.

25. Which kind of horror fan are you?

In a 2023 Aarhus University study of 256 American horror fans and 258 Danish haunted house visitors, fans fall into three types: Adrenaline Junkies who want the rush, White Knucklers who endure it and come out feeling they grew, and Dark Copers who report both.

26. How many people watch horror

According to the University of Turku, 72% of people watch at least one horror movie every six months. The survey size isn’t given on the page.

Why do people like true crime? The gender gap researchers found

Why do people like true crime? According to the research on women in particular, it’s vigilance: learning how a crime happens so you can see it coming.

27. Women read true crime like a survival manual

Across five studies, Amanda Vicary and R. Chris Fraley at the University of Illinois found women are more drawn to true crime than men, who prefer other violent genres, and women gravitate to stories that show how to survive a crime.

28. The fear women named

According to Oakland University, women who were more afraid of rape listened to and watched true crime more often, and said they did it to learn how to prevent or escape an attack.

29. Why women say they listen

According to the University of Graz, which studied up to 571 people, women consume more true crime than men, and their main reason is staying alert to danger, which went with healthier emotional self-regulation.

30. Does true crime make you anxious?

In a 2026 daily-diary study of 199 adults by the University of Graz, true crime didn’t increase next-day anxiety or anger. Days with true crime were followed by slightly better moods, though every effect was below what the authors counted as meaningful.

31. Who’s really listening to true crime podcasts

According to the Pew Research Center, 34% of U.S. adults who listened to a podcast in the past year regularly listen to true crime, and women are almost twice as likely as men to (44% vs. 23%).

How many people still read for pleasure? Reading statistics for 2026

According to the newest reading statistics from the NEA, the University of Florida and Gallup, reading for fun is falling on every measure.

32. How many Americans read a book last year

According to the National Endowment for the Arts, 48.5% of U.S. adults read at least one book in 2022, and only 37.6% read a novel or short story, down from 41.8% in 2017.

33. How much daily reading has dropped since 2004

When the University of Florida and University College London analyzed time diaries from 236,270 Americans, they found the share who read for pleasure on a given day peaked at 28% in 2004 and fell about 3% a year through 2023.

34. Gallup’s lowest number yet

According to Gallup, Americans read an average of 12.6 books in the past year, down from 15.6 in 2016.

35. Guess which genre women read most

In a YouGov poll of 1,000 adults, 18% of women who read genre fiction said mystery and crime is the genre they read most, compared with 10% of men. (We know.)

Looking for your next thriller to help you escape?

If all of this has you wanting a book that drops your heart rate by spiking it first, The Storm Reaper is my Fire Island thriller about Violet Crisp, a patrol officer who has spent a decade trying to prove that a serial killer uses hurricanes to disguise murders as storm-related deaths. Nobody believed her. The old chief told her she was making things up for attention. Then a body washes up after a hurricane with injuries that don’t match drowning, and the new chief is the first person in authority to actually listen.

It’s the slow-build kind of suspense from #17, on a half-mile-wide island with 100 year-round residents and one ferry, and a cat named Purrmaid on the evidence board. As Goodreads reader Melinda Smith put it, “Absolutely gripping plot that I couldn’t put down, great characters and twists I didn’t see coming. A must read.” The first chapters are free, so you can test the sweet-spot theory tonight. In print, before bed, per #13.

Read the First Chapters Free →

Read Next

If the suspense research hooked you, books like Knives Out has ten whodunits where everyone at the table is a suspect, and my serial killer thriller books list is for anyone who recognized themselves in #24.

FAQ

How does reading reduce stress?

According to a Seton Hall University study of 22 students, reading lowered blood pressure and heart rate as much as yoga, though the students’ own stress ratings didn’t change. Nobody has pinned down why, though the Georgia Tech suspense study found viewers’ brains tuned out the edges of the screen at peak suspense. The evidence is promising but small, and the popular 68%-in-six-minutes figure has no published study behind it.

How long do you have to read to reduce stress?

According to Seton Hall, half an hour of reading lowered blood pressure and heart rate, and that’s the best-measured figure available. The often-quoted six minutes comes from an unpublished 2009 report commissioned by Galaxy chocolate, so there’s no way to check it.

What are the benefits of reading fiction?

According to the research, the benefits of reading fiction include a 20% lower risk of dying over 12 years among book readers in a Yale study and a small but real improvement in understanding other people across 14 experiments pooled by Princeton.

Do thrillers raise your heart rate?

According to Aarhus University, listeners’ heart rate variability tracked a story’s emotional intensity, and haunted house visitors in another Aarhus study averaged 111 beats per minute. No study has measured heart rate while people read a printed thriller yet, but readers of The Storm Reaper by Kristen Van Nest describe the effect on Goodreads. As Beverly put it, “This story sucks you in and holds you hostage until the last word. I couldn’t stop reading. Unputdownable!”

Why do people like thrillers?

According to brain scans at Georgia Tech and Freie Universität Berlin, thrillers narrow your attention and engage the parts of your brain that predict what happens next. Fear research from Aarhus University adds that people enjoy being moderately scared most.

Why do we like scary stories?

According to an Aarhus University study of 110 haunted house visitors, we like scary stories when the fear lands in a sweet spot: moderately scared people enjoyed it more than barely scared or terrified ones. Horror fans also showed more resilience during the pandemic in a 2021 survey of 310 adults, though that’s a correlation.

Why do people like true crime?

According to researchers at the University of Illinois and the University of Graz, people like true crime, women especially, to stay alert to danger and learn how to survive it. According to Pew, women podcast listeners are almost twice as likely as men to listen regularly.

What are the latest reading statistics?

According to the National Endowment for the Arts, 48.5% of U.S. adults read a book in 2022, and according to the University of Florida, daily reading for pleasure fell by more than 40% over 20 years.

Sources

All sources were checked in October 2026. Studies marked commissioned were paid for by a company.

• Seton Hall University, Rizzolo et al., Journal of College Teaching & Learning (2009): clutejournals.com
• Galaxy Stress Research, Mindlab International (2009), commissioned by Galaxy chocolate; no primary source published: Tes report
• University of Liverpool, Centre for Research into Reading, Literature and Society (2016), commissioned by Galaxy for Quick Reads: news.liverpool.ac.uk
• Yale School of Public Health, Bavishi, Slade & Levy, Social Science & Medicine (2016): PMC
• National Health Research Institutes, Taiwan, Chang et al., International Psychogeriatrics (2021): PMC
• Emory University, Berns et al., Brain Connectivity (2013): PMC
• The New School, Kidd & Castano, Science (2013): newschool.edu
• University of Pennsylvania et al., Panero et al., Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (2016): almanac.upenn.edu
• Princeton University, Dodell-Feder & Tamir, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General (2018): collaborate.princeton.edu
• University of Cambridge, Fudan University, University of Warwick, Sun et al., Psychological Medicine (2023): cam.ac.uk
• University of Edinburgh and University of Zurich, Murray et al., JCPP Advances (2026): PMC
• Ohio State University, Green & Brock, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (2000): PMC
• University of Galway, Finucane et al., Trials (2021): trialsjournal.biomedcentral.com
• Brigham and Women’s Hospital / Harvard Medical School, Chang et al., PNAS (2015): PMC
• Georgia Tech, Bezdek et al., Neuroscience (2015): control.gatech.edu
• Freie Universität Berlin, Lehne et al., PLOS ONE (2015): journals.plos.org
• Aarhus University, Wallentin et al., NeuroImage (2011): PMC
• University of Turku, Hudson, Nummenmaa et al., NeuroImage (2020): PMC and press release
• Aarhus University Recreational Fear Lab, Andersen et al., Psychological Science (2020), partly funded by the LEGO Foundation: PMC and lab news
• Aarhus University, Bønnelykke-Behrndtz, Clasen, Andersen et al., Brain, Behavior, and Immunity (2025): pure.au.dk
• Aarhus University and University of Sussex, Andersen et al., Emotion (2026): PMC
• University of Pittsburgh, Kerr, Siegle & Orsini, Emotion (2019): PMC
• Aarhus University and Penn State, Scrivner et al., Personality and Individual Differences (2021): University of Kentucky record
• University of Chicago, Scrivner, Morbid Curiosity Scale (2020 preprint): PsyArXiv
• Aarhus University, Scrivner et al., Journal of Media Psychology (2023): pure.au.dk
• University of Illinois, Vicary & Fraley, Social Psychological and Personality Science (2010): journals.sagepub.com
• Oakland University, McDonald, James & Roberto, Archives of Sexual Behavior (2021): PMC
• University of Graz, Perchtold-Stefan et al., British Journal of Psychology (2026): PMC; BMC Psychology (2026): link.springer.com
• Pew Research Center (2023): pewresearch.org
• National Endowment for the Arts, Survey of Public Participation in the Arts (2022): arts.gov
• University of Florida and University College London, Bone et al., iScience (2025): PMC and UF News
• Gallup (2022): news.gallup.com
• YouGov (2022), commercial polling firm: yougov.com

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