How to thrive under pressure: What can stars of the stage teach us about performing in demanding roles?

Know your strengths and eat boiled eggs … how do a musical-theatre star, a ballerina and an opera singer cope with the demands of their roles – and what we can we learn from them?

Sound advice: why rockstars are my guiding light

Therapy helps in a crisis. But when it comes to lessons in life, music has most of the answers, says Ted Kessler

Noel Edmonds’ exercise secret: do it in the dark

The I’m a Celebrity star has surprised viewers with his toned torso, but is it really down to the mysterious power of his nocturnal exertions?

Bill Bailey: ‘As a parent, I’m constantly suggesting some physical activity’

The actor and comedian on birdwatching, taking naps and gaming with his son

Reasons to Stay Alive: how the suicidal Ibiza rave memoir became an album

Matt Haig’s powerful self-help book was a lifeline for Andy Burrows, one-time drummer with Razorlight. Now, with a little help from Kate Hudson, the two men have turned it into music

Matt Haig: ‘I wanted to end it all, but surviving and thriving is the lesson I pass on’

At 24, he wanted to kill himself. Now a novelist, he teaches the readers of his books – and his children – how to get through when the future looks bleak

True pleasure is a play without an interval

Give me, uninterrupted, a new world for the evening, a performance that changes my mood and my mind

‘Having a child is a distraction from your own mortality’: Kathryn Hahn and Tamara Jenkins on their IVF film

Hahn stars in Jenkins’ new comedy about a couple struggling with infertility. They talk about whether feminism and the media should shoulder some blame for encouraging women to wait before reproducing – and why their film shouldn’t be dismissed as a chick flick

Ed Sheeran: the man most likely to send us to sleep

A new study on what music we reach for to help us sleep suggests that, along with Mozart, Chopin and Coldplay, Sheeran is a favourite choice

Book clinic: which books can help with my daughter’s low self-esteem?

A selection of books, from Victoria Jamieson’s Roller Girl to Fantastically Great Women Who Changed the World, to help build confidence

OurChemist

Our Chemist – Health