Can’t read books anymore? Neuroscience has a 5-step plan to get your focus back

Many of us struggle to focus enough to read a whole book. Neuroscience says that’s terrible news for our brains but offers a fix.

[Illustration: Getty Images]

Have you found that you now struggle to get through a book? If so, I have good and bad news for you. The bad news is that losing your ability to read books may be common at the moment, but neuroscience says it is a very bad sign for how our brains are doing. The better news is that science also offers a simple plan to recover your ability to read deeply again. 

Can’t read books anymore? You’re not alone 

“Several people have told me lately that they’ve stopped being able to read, echoing my own experience,” author Katherine May confessed in her newsletter recently. 

Statistics suggest May and her reading-challenged correspondents are far from alone. These days, we’re bombarded by short-form text and continually skim through headlines, texts, emails, and ads. But deep reading is a very different story. One recent study found that the number of Americans who read books on any given day fell 40 percent between 2003 and 2023. 

You may have experienced this inability to focus on any text longer than a couple of lines yourself. Or maybe you read a page only to get to the end and realize you have no idea what happened at the beginning. 

Neuroscience: This is your brain on deep reading 

For once-dedicated readers, losing the ability to really sink into books can be sad and frustrating. For neuroscientists, it’s alarming. Studies show our eyes move in different patterns when we’re skimming content compared to when we’re deeply engaged with a text. And different eye patterns reflect different brain patterns. 

“When the reading brain skims like this, it reduces time allocated to deep reading processes. In other words, we don’t have time to grasp complexity, to understand another’s feelings, to perceive beauty, and to create thoughts of the reader’s own,” Harvard-trained neuroscientist Maryanne Wolf explains.

“It affects our ability to navigate a constant bombardment of information. It incentivizes a retreat to the most familiar silos of unchecked information, which require and receive no analysis, leaving us susceptible to false information and demagoguery,” she warns.  

Claire's went from tween mall icon to bankrupt — twice?

© Fast Company