Everyone knows what makes a good story. Our hero starts their journey as a flawed being. In scene after scene, they face challenges that push them down new paths. By the end of the talc, they overcome setbacks and become a better person in the process.

We love these plots in the novels we read but the principles of a good story offer much more than entertainment. Recent research shows that the narratives we tell ourselves about our lives can powerfully help us recover from stress. People who generate tales of struggling and turning over a new leaf from their own lives appear to have much better mental health. Professor Dan McAdams put forward this idea and discovered that whether someone can describe having had some control over events in their past is an important predictor of mental health. Another key theme involved is finding some kind of positive meaning after stressful events.

McAdams invited 14 and 15-year-olds to join in an experiment to write about their experiences of failure and success. Half of them were then given extra instructions to describe the ways they had made their success a reality and how the failure had changed them for the better. Eight weeks later, members of this group reported greater persistence and better grades in their schoolwork.

Exciting as these results are, some experts sound a few notes of caution. They worry that, hearing about the power of self-narratives, many people may feel they have to find a positive turning point in life. If they can’t, they could end up feeling guilty about having somehow “failed”.

Clearly, self-narratives aren’t the panacea. Nevertheless, if you hope for self-improvement, you can use the findings to good effect. By recognizing ourselves as the hero at the center of our own struggles, we can all become the author of our own destiny and change ourselves for the better.

Many westerners find it so interesting that they always see Chinese people carry a vacuum (真空) cup no matter which season it is. If you go to a restaurant in western countries, they usually serve you a cup of cold water, sometimes even with ice. And every time when Chinese people ask the waiter if they can change to hot water, actually they may receive a strange look from the waiter or people nearby. Hot water? Seriously? Why do Chinese people drink hot water? The answer may exist in the following aspects.

Actually, water quality became a matter of debate in the 1930s in China, when the water supplies were polluted. In order to prevent people from infectious diseases, the government suggested people drinking boiled water, because they considered it a way to kill off bacteria. They always boiled water daily and stored it in a kettle to keep the water warm for the day. Even now, you can find hot water devices everywhere, in schools, factories, and government departments across the country.

Besides, it is well known that Chinese people prefer hot meals every day. Therefore, some parents always teach their children to drink hot water with meals, because they think mixing cold liquids with hot meals is really bad for the stomach, and cold liquids may solidify fats in your stomach, which can cause digestive problems, while hot liquids aid in digestion.

According to the traditional Chinese medicine, health is due to an internal balance of Yin and Yang. In the Yin-Yang theory, water is Yin-type while hot stuff is Yang-type, drinking hot water can enrich Yin and tonify (滋补) Yang in your body, keeping Yin and Yang in balance. If you have cold symptoms or other Yin-type imbalances such as frequent chills, thirst, depression or sleepiness, hot water plays the role of the Yang and brings your body back into balance. Doctors of traditional Chinese medicine always tell patients to drink more hot water.

More than nine out of ten young people expose themselves to the blue light from smartphones before bed, causing problems with sleep. A new survey also shows more than 28 million people in the UK regularly get no more than seven hours sleep a night. Prof Richard Wiseman, who commissioned the YouGov poll described the findings as “extremely worrying”. Of the 2,149 adults questioned, 78% said they used electronic devices before going to bed. This rose to 91% among the 18 to 24-year-olds questioned in the survey.

Getting less than seven hours sleep a night is below the recommended guidelines, and is associated with a range of problems, including an increased risk of weight gain, heart attacks, diabetes and cancer. “The blue light from these devices suppresses(压制) the production of the sleep—inducing hormone melatonin, so it’s important to avoid them before bedtime,” said Prof Richard Wiseman, from the University of Hertfordshire.

Everyone needs different amounts of sleep, but adults are generally thought to require a minimum of seven to eight hours a night. Teenagers are recommended to get more, about nine hours. The proportion(比例) of people thought to be getting too little sleep has risen by a fifth since a “bedroom poll” conducted last year by the National Sleep Foundation.

Last week revealed opticians were warning that the overuse of smartphones may be increasing people’s risk of eye damage. Optician Andy Hepworth said, “Blue violet light is potentially harmful to the back of your eyes.” So over a long period of time it can damage your eyes. When you’re looking at a smartphone, the light peaking out of that is blue violet. The news came as a survey of 2,000 people suggests under-25s check their smartphones 32 times a day.