During my last 21 years as a junior high language arts teacher, I began class with what came to be known as The Quote of the Day. It was nothing more than a simple thought by a deep thinker written on the chalkboard (and eventually the whiteboard) with a key word missing and the correct number of spaces to represent each missing letter.

Such as: “There is no way to happiness. Happiness is the _ _ _.”

I’d read the quotation aloud, provide a bit of background information on its creator, and then students would guess at the missing word. Once that was determined, the tougher task began.

Students would interpret the quotation and relate it to a personal situation.

One year a student correctly added “way,” to the aforementioned Thich Nhat Hanh quotation, provided a spot-on interpretation - and then turned the table (or maybe it should be desk in this case) on me.

“Mr. Kolo,” he said. “What about you? What makes you the happiest?”

Without hesitation I replied, “Progress.”

The rapidity of my response surprised the class almost as much as it surprised me. The personal situation I chose to relate surprised me as well.

I told the class how I once fractured my femur in a bicycle race while being 65 seconds in the lead and not more 2 kilometers away from the finish line in a high-stakes race I had yearned to win for years when the back tire rolled off the back rim through a turn taken at 25 miles per hour. How that fracture ended my season after four races where my worst finish had been a single second place.

How the three cycling buddies who came to see me a few weeks into my rehab all said essentially the same thing: How oddly happy I seemed to be despite my bad luck and bad injury.

But there was nothing odd about it, I explained to the class. I truly was happy.

I had been rehabbing with fervor and focus, so nearly every day led to what I love to experience in some way, shape, or form and see in others - especially my students.

Progress. At least a little bit of it.

Now whether or not you get the same jolt of joy from becoming just that little bit better really doesn’t matter. What does is that you recognize that a little bit is the most likely rate of any progress you make in life - especially when it comes to your health.

Which brings us back to the seemingly odd topic at hand. Read the right way before bedtime, however, and it will make you just that little bit better.

Pressure at your job, the nonstop pace of your day, a good relationship gone bad: These are just three of the many stressors that can prey on your mind and keep you from falling asleep at night. Research led by Dr. David Lewis and performed at the University of Sussex in Sussex England in 2009, however, shows you only need to read silently in bed for as little as six minutes to drop for your stress level 68%.

“You Should Pick Up Your Book Before Bed,” an article at WebMd.com and cites this study, also explains why it’s best that the reading be done with a book rather than a device with a screen. The type of light that a laptop, smartphone, or e-reader emits inhibits your body’s secretion of melatonin, a hormone so crucial to sleep that it’s often taken in supplemental form as a sleep aid.

And whether or not you have trouble falling asleep, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports there’s a one-in-three probability that you’re not getting enough of it. And sleep deficiency can produce far more than a morose mood in the morning.

Long term, it’s been linked to increasing the risk of obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, and what the CDC calls “frequent mental distress.”

The results of a survey performed by SleepJunkie.com suggests an easy antidote, though. On average, those surveyed and who characterized themselves as regular readers slept an hour and a half longer per week than non-readers.

When questioned about their rate of daily productivity, 79% of regular bedtime readers felt they got the most out of themselves during the day.

One reason why bedtime reading is beneficial is really true for all reading any time of the day, particularly fiction. It alters your state of mind in a positive way.

The task of reading requires you not only to forget present problems, troubles, or other unpleasant realities, but also to consider a point of view often far different from yours.

That can provide insight. That can create clarity. And studies show that it invariably engenders empathy.

Apply these to what you do and it’s sure to lead to that thing we tend to do in the littlest of bits.

Progress.