Falling Asleep While Reading? Here’s What Researchers Have Discovered About This Habit

Do you often doze off as you open an academic book or even while reading your favourite novel? Don’t worry, as researchers discovered in a randomized trial called ‘The Reading Trial' that this habit is more common than you think.

'The Reading Trial,' hosted by The People’s Trial, was an online randomized trial conducted in 2019 to find out if reading a book in bed can make a difference to sleep, in comparison to not reading a book in bed. And this is what researchers have discovered after conducting an assessment of 991 participants.

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Method

Participants were invited to join a social media campaign which was divided into two groups such as, the Intervention Group and the Control Group, for seven consecutive days, after which their sleep quality was measured.

Out of 991 participants in the trial, according to the National Institute of Health (NIH), 496 individuals in the intervention group were asked to read a book in bed before going to sleep, while 495 participants in the control group were instructed not to read in bed before bedtime.

Although some people could not finish the trial, the data revealed that 156/369 people in the intervention group felt their sleep improved, as compared to 112/405 of those in the control group, which is a 14% difference.

So, does reading improve sleep quality?

“Reading a book in bed before going to sleep improved sleep quality, compared to not reading a book in bed”, claims NIH.