March 20, 2025 • 3 minute read
Last night, I found myself awake at 2 AM, wireless earbuds in, listening to Zodiac Academy: Sorrow and Starlight while coloring on my iPad in bed. My alarm was set for 6:30, and yet there I was, completely unable to hit pause, muttering "just one more chapter" to myself like the sleep-deprived book addict I am.
This morning, I'm exhausted. My eyes are dry, I've consumed enough coffee to qualify as a medical experiment, and yet...I regret nothing.
Reading as self-care in a chaotic world
Because here's the thing about reading that I've been thinking about lately: it's not just an escape, it's a lifeline and essential self-care.
In a world where my phone incessently pings with news alerts that make my stomach drop, where social media serves up perfectly curated lives designed to make me feel inadequate, and where "adulting" involves an endless checklist of responsibilities, books remain the one place where I can fully exhale.
I've been reflecting on why exactly that is. Why, when I'm already overwhelmed with life, do I choose to add "finish 800-page fantasy novel" to my mental to-do list? Why is reading such powerful self-care for so many of us?
How books create mental sanctuary when everything is too much
It's not just about the escape, though that's certainly part of it. It's that books invite us into a different headspace, one that breaks the cycle of digital distraction.
Books meet me where I am. Sometimes that's curled up with total concentration, just me and the page and these characters who start to feel as real as the people in my actual life. Other times, it's with an audiobook playing while I color (as many of you have seen on my LIVEs), my hands busy with one creative pursuit while my mind travels somewhere else entirely. Both experiences offer something increasingly rare: genuine absorption in something that isn't trying to sell me anything or trigger my anxiety.
What I love is how characters become so real to us, sometimes more real than actual people, because we know their innermost thoughts in a way we never truly know anyone else's.
Finding comfort in fiction during difficult times
During a particularly difficult week last month (you know, one of those weeks where everything seems determined to go wrong simultaneously), I found myself diving into a new fantasy world at 3 AM, my perpetual insomnia finally serving a purpose. As someone who never rereads books (too many new stories waiting, too little time), I instead find my comfort in the reliable structure of storytelling itself—the promise that no matter how chaotic the plot gets, some form of resolution awaits.
There's safety in escaping to fictional worlds when everything feels uncertain in our own. There's power in temporarily living somewhere else, where problems might be bigger (hello, world-ending catastrophes) but are somehow more manageable than the mundane overwhelm of real life.
Why reading for mental wellbeing matters
I don't read to be productive. I don't read to seem intellectual. I don't even read to learn, though that often happens anyway.
I read because it reminds me that I'm human. That I can still feel deeply. That I can still be surprised, devastated, delighted.
Reading is the one thing I do solely for myself. Not to check a box. Not to post about it (though obviously, I sometimes do). But because for a few moments, nothing is required of me except to turn the page.
So here's to the books that keep us sane. The ones that make us laugh when we thought we'd forgotten how. The ones that let us cry when we're too stubborn to do it otherwise. The ones that remind us who we are when we're in danger of forgetting.
And here's to you, fellow night-readers, page-turners, and story-lovers who understand that "just one more chapter" is both a promise and a beautiful lie.
Share Your Reading Refuge
What book has been your lifeline lately? The one you can't stop thinking about, or the one that helped you through a difficult time? Let's talk about it in the comments—my TBR pile and I are all ears.
If you're looking for more book recommendations for those sleepless nights, check out my list of fantasy books that will ruin you for normal romance or my thoughts on Blood Over Bright Haven that will probably be with me forever.
Until next time, happy reading. 📚
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