The Benefits of Handwritten Communication

EMOTIONAL REGULATION

➘ A study published in JMIR Mental Health in 2018, which involved 70 adults with elevated anxiety, found that writing in a journal led to decreased mental distress after a month and greater resilience after the first and second month, relative to usual care

➘ A study published in the Journal of Behavioral Medicine in 2008 traced the impact of writing on 102 chronic pain patients and found greater improvements in control over pain and depressed mood

TREATING LONELINESS

➘ Nearly 60 per cent Indians between the ages of 18 and 29 felt lonely during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a study published in the Journal of Positive School Psychology in 2022. That’s concerning because loneliness can increase the risk of heart attack by 29 per cent and of stroke by 32 per cent, says the American Heart Association. Letter writing can help in such cases, as it reduces the impact of loneliness and can help establish a sense of social connection, as was found in a 2021 research study published in the Journal of Social Work in 2021.

LEARNING AND MEMORY

➘ Writing by hand creates more activity in the sensorimotor parts of the brain, as well as the hippocampus, which is associated with higher recall, according to experts

➘ A 2021 study by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, which tracked brain activity during classroom learning, found that cursive writing produces the best learning and memory

➘ A 2021 study from Johns Hopkins notes that writing by hand helps adults learn general literacy skills faster than when they learn the same material by typing or watching videos