Do you read a lot of books—maybe for school, or just because you enjoy it? Or are you a lawyer who spends all day poring over the fine print of the law? Whatever the case, we adults read ourselves ragged—especially now that we’re glued to our smartphones all day long. But what if we told you there’s a very specific chemical that helps you read much faster and more effectively? Curious to know what it is? Then keep reading!
I need a coffee, now!
This special substance? Caffeine. The active ingredient in your favorite cup of coffee not only gives you a serious energy boost, but it also makes you read faster. This is according to new research published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology. The observed improvements in reading speed were also accompanied by a change in the overall perception of visual stimuli.
"While studying the cause of developmental dyslexia—the inability to acquire sufficient reading skills —we found that children with dyslexia exhibit a specific deficit in the analysis of whole visual images, with a tendency to focus on local details,” explained study author Sandro Franceschini of the University of Padua in Italy.
A book in record time
“In rehabilitation training, we observed that improving their global analysis of visual scenes also improved their reading skills. Knowing that caffeine could temporarily improve the global perception of visual scenes in healthy adults, we wanted to measure whether this ‘enhancement’ of global perception was linked to an improvement in reading ability.” In essence, they wanted to know whether caffeine could be linked to better reading ability. And it turns out they were successful.
In two double-blind studies involving 78 participants, the researchers found that a single dose of 200 mg of caffeine (about two shots of espresso) significantly improved reading speed compared to a placebo. In line with previous research, caffeine also improved global pattern perception, meaning that large letters composed of smaller letters can be distinguished.
Perfect for complex skills
The findings emphasize that “many different factors contribute to the execution of a complex skill such as reading a text, not just phonological skills. Visual perception and attention can play a decisive role,” Franceschini told PsyPost, an American website focused on the human psyche.
But they also found something else striking: namely, that the participants were better able to retain texts when they slept less. A slight amount of sleep deprivation thus actually had beneficial effects. “Our results show that the effect of caffeine on text recall was enhanced by a small amount of sleep deprivation: if you slept two hours less the previous night, you’ll remember twice as much of this article you’re reading now,” says the researcher.
Cramming
“It’s intriguing to think that to enhance the effect of caffeine, you actually need a specific brain condition (sleep deprivation, ed.). This correlation may spur future research to determine the effect of caffeine on specific neurotransmitters.” Incidentally, the researchers did not observe any improvements in speed when reading word lists or so-called “nonsense words.” So if you want to cram some vocabulary for your schoolwork, you’d be better off skipping that espresso. A visit to our health shop, by the way, never hurts...
