By Lumen Editorial Team · Published 2026-10-27
Updated 2026-10-27
By the Lumen Editorial Team · Updated 21 October 2026
You can get through text faster by skimming, but understanding drops once you go well past your normal pace. A 2016 review of the reading research found no shortcut that lets people double or triple their speed and still understand the text as well as before. Reading faster costs comprehension; practice and language skill are what move the trade-off.
The most cited source is the review "So much to read, so little time: How do we read, and can speed reading help?" by Keith Rayner, Elizabeth Schotter, Michael Masson, Mary Potter and Rebecca Treiman, published in Psychological Science in the Public Interest (2016, volume 17, issue 1, pages 4 to 34). It looks at what is known about how eyes and minds process text, then asks what that means for speed-reading courses and apps.
Its main conclusion is a speed-accuracy trade-off. Readers are unlikely to take a typical speed of around 250 words per minute to something like 500 to 750 and still understand as well as they would at a normal pace. If you do not need a thorough understanding, reading faster or skimming can get you through a text with moderate comprehension.
Reading is not only your eyes. Your eyes pause on words, move on, and sometimes go back. Underneath that, you are recognising words, parsing sentences and building meaning. Those language steps take time, and speeding up the eyes does not speed up the thinking.
The same review points to what does help: practice and stronger language skills, such as a larger vocabulary. Its authors put it plainly: language skill is at the heart of reading speed.
No. Skimming is a legitimate tool when the goal is to find something or get the gist. The problem is calling it a way to "read" a textbook at triple speed. Here is a simple check we call the purpose test. Before you start, ask which of these you are doing:
| Your goal | Right approach | What to expect |
|---|---|---|
| Find a fact or decide if a text is worth your time | Skim and scan | Fast, with partial understanding |
| Get the gist of news or an email | Read quickly, once | Reasonable understanding, some detail missed |
| Learn, study or make a decision from the text | Read at a pace where you can answer questions about it | Slower, with solid understanding |
If your goal sits in the third row, speeding up works against you. If it sits in the first, skimming is the honest name for what you are doing.
Lumen does not promise a multiple of your current speed. It is built around the parts the research says matter: fluency, how much you take in per glance, and whether you understood what you read.
Based on the current app:
You can read how these map to research on our science page, or start with a baseline on the Lumen home page.
Can you double your reading speed and keep full comprehension? The 2016 review by Rayner and colleagues found this is unlikely at a typical speed of around 250 words per minute.
Is skimming the same as speed reading? In practice, yes. When you do not need thorough understanding, reading faster or skimming gets you through text with moderate comprehension.
What actually helps you read faster? Practice and language skill, especially vocabulary.
Does Lumen promise a faster reading speed? No. Lumen measures your own baseline, trains pace and eye-span, and checks comprehension so you see your own numbers.
Rayner, K., Schotter, E. R., Masson, M. E. J., Potter, M. C., & Treiman, R. (2016). So much to read, so little time: How do we read, and can speed reading help? Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 17(1), 4-34. doi:10.1177/1529100615623267