Welcome to the Weekly Medius PsychNews. Every week, we select five thought-provoking Psychology articles from hundreds published in journals and other media. Psychology Drives Everything.

New psychology research suggests being sedentary does not necessarily lead to mental health problems:Modern lifestyles have made prolonged sitting a health concern. But sedentary behavior itself might not be related to impaired mental health and cognition, according to new research published in Mental Health and Physical Activity. “Sedentary behavior is currently a hot topic, and it has even been termed the ‘new smoking’ epidemic. Sedentary behavior is said to be associated with several adverse health outcomes, including mental and cognitive health,” said study author Chantal Koolhaas of University Medical Center Rotterdam. Full article.

Surprising new study shows we learn less from failure than success:
The age-old saying “learn from your mistakes” is just… well, a saying, according to new research. Despite many believing the conventional wisdom is supposed to teach us a life-long lesson about our previous failures, new research by the University of Chicago Booth School of Business found that people learn less from mistakes than from success. “We are taught to learn from failure, to celebrate failure, to fail forward,” said Chicago Booth Professor Ayelet Fishbach in a statement. “Graduation speeches often talk about how much you should dare to fail and learn from your failures. And managers talk about the lessons that they personally had from failures. If you just listen to public speaking, you would think that we are pretty tuned in to failures. However, this is not the case.” Full article.

Some narcissistic traits may be useful for mental health:
Narcissism is a personality disorder that gets a bad rap due to some of its characteristic traits, such as an inflated sense of self-importance and poor regard for others. But researchers now suggest that some of these traits might help safeguard a person's mental health. Narcissism is a personality disorder characterized by traits such as an inflated sense of self-importance and a need to receive constant admiration and emotional reinforcement from others. Studies suggest that up to 6.2%Trusted Source of individuals in given research cohorts have narcissistic personality disorder. Yet, while narcissism does have some fixed traits, researchers have shown that it is a spectrum disorder. Full article.

10 Ways Your Body Language Gives You Away:
Can other people “read your body language like a book” (the title of a best-selling book from the 1960s)? Not really. Body language is not a true “language.” In other words, there is no one single meaning to a particular nonverbal cue. There are, however, some cues that an astute person can use to infer what you are thinking or feeling. What are some of these body language cues that give you away? Full article.

How Can I Get More Sleep?
I have a habit of going to bed later than I want and then being rushed in the morning and getting to work late. For several years now, I’ve been wanting to get to bed earlier, but I can’t seem to do it. I have a tendency to feel pretty driven and busy during the day, and the evening feels like my only time to relax. I binge-watch Netflix, scroll through my social media and news alerts, and generally get caught doing random things on my phone until late at night. But when I think about going to bed early, I feel kind of deprived. I think I actually do need time to wind down and take a break before I go to sleep, even when I’m totally exhausted. Full article.