Sundance 2015 review: The Nightmare – documentary shows truth more frightening than fiction

Room 237 documentarian Rodney Ascher takes us into the dark, shows us screaming sufferers of sleep paralysis, then tells us we could well become one of them. Good luck ever resting again

Why getting what you want doesn’t always make you happy

‘When someone you’re arguing with suddenly concedes your point,’ Oliver Burkeman says, ‘there’s a palpable sense that something’s amiss: a crucial process has been skipped’

I have decided to become an optimist – it’ll never work!

Stuart Heritage: optimists are fitter, happier and live longer than the rest of us, so I’m going to have to start looking on the bright side. But hang on, there’s a flaw to this plan …

Five reasons why we should all learn how to do nothing

Are today’s always-connected, crazily busy lifestyles affecting our health? Give yourself a break – your brain needs downtime

Losing your smartphone: the five stages of grief

Dean Burnett: Given how indispensable smartphones can become to a person’s life, the loss of one is worryingly hard to cope with

Oliver Burkeman: family mind games at Christmas

‘Family fights and failing marriages aren’t our own unique tribulations. They’re just variations on “games” we all unwittingly play,’ Oliver Burkeman says. ‘This week, why not try to catch yourself in the act?’

The best psychology books of 2014

From moving accounts of how we deal with dying and suffering to two brilliant takes on Freud. By Lisa Appignanesi

Countdown to big birthdays: how it feels to be on the cusp

The big birthdays are meant to be the scariest, but new research shows that we take the year before them the hardest – having affairs or running marathons. Oliver Burkeman, 39, and others come clean about being on the cusp

Getting upset over trivial matters? There’s a rational explanation

When truly bad things happen we have recovery mechanisms, but they don’t work when our problems are smaller, discovers Oliver Burkeman

Surviving Black Friday: a scientific guide

Dean Burnett: Black Friday is upon us once again, but with this handy scientific guide, you might just survive the commercial onslaught