A US team of researchers report that sleep cleans the brain. Brain cells shrink during sleep to open up the gaps between neurons and allow fluid to wash the brain clean. They also suggest that failing to clear away some toxic proteins may play a role in brain disorders, which makes it a vital function for staying alive.

The findings build on last year's discovery of the brain's own network of plumbing pipes - known as the glymphatic system, which carry waste material out of the brain. In tests on mice, the glymphatic system became 10-times more active when they were asleep.

I didn't realize the brain needed cleaning. I don't know how toxins build up there either. Probably on a 'need to know' basis.

One big question for sleep researchers is why do animals sleep at all when it leaves them vulnerable to predators? Apparently, the brain can't do the housework and function at the same time—it has to choose.  But some people don't sleep well, for so many reasons.

My husband remains awake for most of the night, getting up, flinging himself back into bed only to experience bad dreams. I have no idea why he is so restless, whereas I sleep peacefully. Maybe we were born that way. I must assure you that his sleeplessness doesn't affect his behavior during the day. He's active and bright—much better than me.

And what about all the homeless people in the world? Apart from being excluded from the rest of society, they can't sleep well. They must be cold and uncomfortable as well as in danger and vulnerable. I couldn't imagine what it must be like to live a lonely life without a proper home.

This brings up the inhuman punishment of solitary confinement. Some prisoners spend years without human contact. Recently, the murder conviction of a prisoner who has spent 41 years in solitary confinement has been overturned by a judge in the US state of Louisiana. What a cruel way to reprimand a human being.

Loneliness is on the increase for a variety of reasons, mostly because of the changing nature of society with families becoming split up as children move away. Nearly half of adults in the UK experience loneliness. That's a shocking figure, and seems to have increased dramatically in the last 10 years. Those particularly targeted are the elderly, with most reporting television as their best friend. Maybe sleep gives them comfort.

I leave you with a few words from William Shakespeare's play Hamlet.

' To sleep, perchance to Dream; Aye, there's the rub,
For in that sleep of death, what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil ...'

Yesterday, I blogged about modern-day slavery. This morning the UK government has announced measures it will take to address the problem.

The UK will introduce a maximum life sentence for the worst cases of human trafficking and exploitation. New government figures show the number of cases of human trafficking discovered in the UK has risen by 25% in the last year. Ministers are planning new legislation to simplify the law on slavery, and make it easier to bring prosecutions. Read more here.

According to the report, Victims are often trafficked for sexual exploitation, construction work or begging gangs. The largest number of victims came from Nigeria, Vietnam, Albania, Romania and China.

The push against 'modern-day slavery' covers a multitude of sins, but there is a common thread. Often lured to the UK with the promise of free travel, a job and accommodation, and sometimes members of their own family, the victims are usually promised, in advance, a happy, comfortable and free life in Britain.
They arrive to discover misery, squalor and varying degrees of imprisonment.

The government's Modern Slavery Bill would contain new anti-trafficking measures. Trafficking prevention orders will ensure that someone released from a sentence for a human trafficking offence cannot simply go back to being a gangmaster. Restrictions will also be placed on the convicted individual's ability to own a company, visit certain places or work with children or young women.

Because there are so many different models of slavery, it is a problem that can only be tackled through a wide range of government bodies and agencies working together. Charities such as the Salvation Army need to focus on helping, and identifying, the victims. Throughout the world, we can all play a part by remaining vigilant.

But perhaps the biggest problem of all is that no-one really knows how big this problem is. How many captives are hidden in inner city squallor, unable physically or mentally to escape?

I hope the legislation will be instigated and that modern-day slaves can be freed. Surely it's time to be able to stop slavery ever happening again.

Modern slavery is in the news again. And so it should be. What a shocking state of affairs for this injustice to happen these days. We're not pirates or slave-traffickers any more, stealing people from their home and shipping them overseas for profit, where they stand shackled in a market place awaiting their fete.

But it seems this practice of forcing another human being to work without their consent still goes on in what is called a 'hidden crime'.

The UK couple who trafficked a 10-year-old girl to the UK have been convicted. She was repeatedly raped and kept as a domestic servant for nearly a decade. The victim was only found after trading standards officials visited their home investigating allegations of illegal activity.

She was found in the cellar, which was described as sparse, cold and damp. Police said the girl cleaned and cooked at the house, and was taken to other houses belonging to the family to carry out domestic chores. First brought to the UK as a child, she was unable to hear or speak and had no formal sign language through which to communicate, no family or friends to turn to, had never been to school and had no knowledge of this country's culture and society.

Details of the victim's ordeal only emerged after she was taught sign language, enabling her to be interviewed by police. Thankfully, the bright girl is now being supported, living a good life, and has achieved her potential. But others aren't so lucky, if you can call it that.

In a ranking of 162 countries, nearly 30 million people around the world are living as slaves. The Global Slavery Index 2013 says India has the highest number of people living in conditions of slavery at 14 million, followed by China, Pakistan and Nigeria. Read more here. Mauritania has the highest proportional figure with about 4% of its population enslaved.

  Australian-based rights organization Walk Free Foundation compiled the index using a definition of modern slavery that includes debt bondage, forced marriage and human trafficking.

I know. We don't want to face more bad news. Why can't we live our own lives and ignore what goes on elsewhere? But this could be happening near you. If everyone is aware of this shocking crime, perhaps more can be done to rescue the unseen sufferers so they can share the wonders of our modern world.

I will hold them in my prayers.

Some experts think modern living is causing more people to become disconnected from green spaces and the natural world, and that our health and well-being is suffering.

I agree with this. Maybe "street gangs" wouldn't exist if we all lived close to nature and developed a bond. Then again, I grew up in an area with no trees apart from a park about fifteen minutes walk away. But I took my sisters there every week and we'd roll around on the grass. We'd climb the apricot tree in the back garden and dream of another life.
I don't remember bad groups of boys in the 1940s in Australia. Times have changed so much since then.

'Children in Nature' groups have formed around America, part of a growing worldwide movement to reconnect children with nature.  Campaigners say children are missing out on opportunities afforded to previous generations, ones as simple as climbing trees or getting their knees dirty.

In an increasingly urbanized, electronic-based, risk-adverse world, the adults of the future are displaying the symptoms of "nature-deficit disorder", a term coined by Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Wood.

A new study from the RSPB (Royal Society for Protection of Birds) suggests that large numbers of children in Britain are missing out on the natural world. The three-year British project found that only 21% of children aged 8-12 were "connected to nature".

They came up with a definition of what "connected to nature" actually means, and then developed a questionnaire with 16 statements designed to assess the level of connection among children. The concept includes these four descriptions of how children feel about nature:

    Empathy for creatures

    Having a sense of oneness with nature

    Having a sense of responsibility for the environment

    Enjoyment of nature

Improving children's natural bond is not only good for the youngsters, it is crucial for the future of nature conservation in the world. This will generate a force that can save nature and stop us living in a world where the environment is declining.

A lack of exposure to the open air under trees, or at the beach with the wind blowing through your hair, could be resulting in more urban dwellers developing allergies and asthma. Finnish scientists say certain bacteria, shown to be beneficial for human health, are found in greater abundance in non-urban surroundings. Research suggests microbiota play an important role in the development and maintenance of the immune system.

I watched a TV program about Germany a few months ago. Young children are taken to play supervised in the woods all day during their kindergarten years. It seems to me that this is an excellent way for them to explore nature and develop a link with trees, birds and insects. Back in the day (1960s), my children spent a lot of time at the park with friends after school. We'd walk to the beach regularly and pick up rubbish from the steps leading down to the sand. I taught them about how wonderful it was to keep the area clean so we could smell the fresh air and swim in the clean sea. Even as babies, they loved the beach. Karen would pick up thin slices of hardened sand and eat them before I could stop her.

Outside under the trees, listening to the birds and the rustle of autumn leaves, I feel the connection to all living things.

Charlotte Church has spoken out against women acting the role of sex objects. She says young female singers are coerced into the role by male executives during the making of videos. She made her comments during BBC 6 Music's annual John Peel Lecture. When the same thing happened to her eight years ago, she felt extremely uncomfortable. The star said young female artists were routinely "coerced into sexually demonstrative behavior in order to hold on to their careers".

The music business is "a male dominated industry with a juvenile perspective on gender and sexuality" and increasingly wants "sex objects that appear child-like", Church claimed.

The star accused record labels of encouraging young singers "to present themselves as hypersexualised, unrealistic, cartoonish, as objects, reducing female sexuality to a prize you can win".

"There are countless examples from the last few years of songs that have been in high rotation, that have little to no artistic worth, but are just plain rude."

Listen to the pure voice of Charlotte Church singing Ave Maria at 14 years old. Beautiful.

My husband and I watched the X-Factor singing competition on Sunday night. The featured star who sang to fill in time while the votes were being accounted wore a little split shift, exposing both sides of her body all the way from her ankles to her bottom. I think she wore a skin colored garment above. But what was the need to wear such a revealing outfit on a show that children watch? In one of the male groups, a contestant continually gestured at his crotch. I find this behavior uncomfortable to watch. Although they might not have young and desirable bodies, some of the female voices, especially of the older contenders, are wonderful. How far will they get in the competition? What IS the X-factor?

Which would you rather enjoy? The voice of an artist or a performance that makes you cringe?

Iceland is experiencing a book boom. This island nation of just over 300,000 people has more writers, more books published and more books read per head, than anywhere else in the world.

Around the globe, more and more people are publishing books. If a publishing house won't accept them, they self-publish. But the writers in Reykjavik differ because they sell to a demanding population.


The novels often depict events known from the early years of Icelandic history, although there is much debate as to how much of their content is factual.

Old Icelandic sagas tell the stories of the country's Norse settlers, who began to arrive on the island in the late 9th Century. First written down in the 13th century, the sagas contain some of the richest and most extraordinary writing of the Middle Ages.

The people of Iceland are a nation of storytellers. When it was dark and cold, they had nothing else to do. They have always been surrounded by stories. Full of heroes, feuds and outlaws, with a smattering of ghosts and trolls, the sagas inspired writers including Sir Walter Scott, William Morris and WH Auden. When Laxness won the Nobel prize in 1955 he put modern Icelandic literature on the map. Read more here.

Doom-sayers predict the printed book risks going the way of the cuneiform tablet, papyrus scroll or vellum parchment. Yet, the rapid changes in technology are proving a boon to many struggling authors, disappointed by a growing pile of publishers' rejection letters.

I was lucky enough to have my work accepted by two different publishers. Solstice Publishing took on the Moonstone Series, and Double Dragon Publishing agreed to the Higher Ground futuristic series co-written with Edith Parzefall.


However, I've been disappointed by the free books I've sampled from struggling authors although I wouldn't dream of leaving a disparaging review. These writers have given every effort to produce their novel. But this raises the question of the e-book's future.

What do you think of books you've read by unknown authors?

Barriers designed to protect the Italian city of Venice from flooding during high tides have been successfully tested for the first time. Four large floodgates rose out of the water creating a temporary sea barrier.

Not before time. With the seas rising, many coastal areas around the globe are likely to be flooded. In the future, the water is not expected to recede with the annual tide as it does now.

Once completed, 78 mobile flood barriers in Venice will be raised from the seabed to shut off the lagoon in the event of rising sea levels and winter storms. The city suffers flooding on a yearly basis. In 1966, 80% of the city was flooded by high tides.

Construction on the barriers began 10 years ago but has been hampered by delays in funding due to Italy's economic crisis. The Moses project has already cost more than $7bn (£5bn) and is not expected to be completed for another two years. Once finished, the floodgates will extend more than a mile, blocking the three inlets to the lagoon. The project us due to be completed in 1916.

The city of Venice is sited on one of a group of 118 small islands in northeastern Italy separated by canals and linked by bridges. I've seen historical paintings and sketches of the place, often displayed in English grand homes, but never realized Venice was on such a small island.

In times gone by, wealthy men, and very few women, took The Grand Tour for a year or more, to serve as an educational rite of passage. Mainly upper-class European young men of means took the traditional trip of Europe. The custom flourished from about 1660 until the advent of large-scale rail transit in the 1840s, and was associated with a standard itinerary. Though primarily associated with the British nobility and wealthy landed gentry, similar trips were made by wealthy young men of Protestant Northern European nations on the Continent, and from the second half of the 18th century some South American, US, and other overseas youth joined in.

I've got a sinking feeling.

Twenty five years ago, I lived on the Gold Coast of Queensland in Australia. Wealthy people live either side of canals separating the strip of coastal land. Back then, my family discussed the possibility of the entire area being covered by sea in some possible future.

The Thames Barrier prevents tidal surges from reaching London. The marshlands along the coast soak up excess water too. I live in one of the highest parts, north-east of the city, one hill away from Arkley View. In World War II, the large house, a "Y" station on the outskirts of Barnet, acted as a data collection centre at which traffic was collated and passed to Bletchley Park during air raids.

The peril facing the world is different now.

What choice do people living in threatened coastal areas have? They can't leave their home because of a possibility. If everyone decided to sell, their land would lose value. People with youngsters should think of the future. On the other hand, maybe it's best not to be prudent. Enjoy whatever life offers. As for me, I'd wait. But I've lived a full life.

What would you do?

Sniffing a teaspoon of PEANUT BUTTER can help detect the early stages of Alzheimer's. University of Florida researchers used the sandwich spread in a sniff test to determine patients’ loss of smell in one nostril compared to the other.

Those in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease lose their sense of smell in the left nostril more quickly than in the right and peanut butter is the perfect substance with which to detect the problem. That’s thanks to its status as a ‘pure odorant,’ meaning its smell is detected exclusively by our olfactory nerve. Most smells are also detected with our trigeminal nerve, which is responsible for sensation in the face. But it’s the olfactory nerve that’s important in Alzheimer’s research. Degradation in the olfactory center of the brain is one of the first signs of the disease.

A researcher at UF McKnight Brain Institute Center for Smell and Taste conducted the experiment by holding a ruler to the noses of patients with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia and gradually moving the peanut butter closer. On average, patients could smell the peanut butter at about 20 centimeters from their right nostril versus 10 centimeters from their left.

The findings could translate into a fast and easy way to detect the initial stages of Alzheimer’s, so that it can be slowed with drugs as early as possible. Read more here.

Although the peanut has a long history, having been found in Peruvian mummy tombs, peanut butter is a relatively young food. In 1890, an enterprising physician, Dr. John Kellogg (of corn flakes fame), created peanut butter as a healthy protein substitute that was easy to digest for patients with no teeth.

 Many people dispute the spread's overall healthy effect, although peanut butter contains many beneficial nutrients. One of the main drawbacks is that some of it enters into the bloodstream. The more disturbing news is that some people find peanut butter addictive.

When I was young and physically fit, I indulged in an occasional peanut butter and banana sandwich. Maybe I'd even add honey. I rarely eat the spread nowadays, although sometimes I slip a teaspoon into a bowl of plain Greek-style yogurt and banana for lunch. I guess I haven't lost the memory of a past pleasure.

I think I'll try the sniffing test. How about you?

London Fire Brigade received 100 unnecessary calls a week in the last year. It revealed some of the strangest 999 calls in a bid to cut down on the number of non-emergency calls they receive. These include a lost set of false teeth, a spider crawling onto a pillow, and an elderly woman who asked for help after she threw water at fighting dogs, forgetting her dentures were in the glass.

Firefighters were asked to help find a mobile phone after its owner said it had fallen down the toilet. An au pair rang about getting help to close a window.  A woman called about a squirrel in her kitchen and another rang after a bat flew into hers. A man wanted help changing a tire. Services have been called for a hamster bite, hangover help, no toilet paper, and a son's refusal to go to bed. The control room was also asked to send someone to retrieve a shoe stuck on a garage roof, and a woman called 999 when she feared a fox in her garden might bite her because it had an odd look on its face.

Emergency services respond to real emergencies, so if you do find a squirrel in your kitchen or you lose your keys down the toilet, don't dial for the fire brigade. People with phobias should get friends to help them and if residents find an unexpected animal in their home they should call the RSPCA.

Isn't it amazing the way our society has developed? On other news items today, the lead female meerkat collects 'rent' from every other female in her group, and elephants understand human gestures even though they've never seen them before. Of course, we're 'civilized'. Nothing shows human beings caring side better than setting up a special service where anyone can call in a time of need. This special quality is often portrayed as something outstanding in science fiction stories like 'ET', with the poignant pointing at his heart and saying 'hurt'. Humans are outstanding; even we don't really know what beings from other planets might think of us.

Here's how it all began. London deployed the first emergency number system on 1 July 1937 using the number 999. This soon extended to cover the entire country. When 999 was dialed on the old-style telephone, a buzzer sounded at the exchange and a red light flashed to attract an operator's attention.

Southern California Telephone Co. began using 116 as an emergency line for Los Angeles, California in 1946. The emergency number 999 was adopted in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada in 1959. The first 911 emergency phone systems went into use in Haleyville, Alabama in 1968.

In many countries, the public telephone network uses a single emergency telephone number, sometimes called the universal emergency telephone number or the emergency services number. The number to call for help differs from country to country, typically a three-digit number so that it can be easily remembered and dialed quickly.

Have you ever called the emergency number?

Would an extra hour's sleep a night change your health? This sounds too good to be true.

The University of Surrey's Sleep Research Centre studied the effect of increasing average sleep by just one hour. They took forteen volunteers, who normally sleep anywhere between six and nine hours, and randomly allocated them to two groups.
One group was asked to sleep for six-and-a-half hours a night, the other got seven-and-a-half hours.
After a week the researchers took blood tests and the volunteers were asked to switch sleep patterns. The group that had been sleeping six-and-a-half hours got an extra hour, while the other group slept an hour less.

The John Radcliffe hospital in Oxford revealed what actually happens during sleep. At first, a preson experiences deep sleep. This sounds restful, but during those few hours the brain is working hard. One of the main things to happen is the brain moves memories from short-term storage into long-term storage, allowing more short-term memory space for the next day. If adequate deep sleep isn't achieved, these memories are lost. A person can't make up for lost sleep, because these memories will be lost.

This storage sounds remarkably similar to a computer program when you don't click 'save'.

The next stage is REM sleep, during which an extraordinary thing happens. One of the stress-related chemicals in the brain, noradrenalin, is switched off. It's the only time, day or night, this happens. It allows a person to remain calm while their brains reprocess all the experiences of the day, helping them come to terms with particularly emotional events. More REM sleep comes in the last half of the night. This means that if a person is woken unexpectedly, their brain may not have dealt with all emotions, which could leave them stressed and anxious.

Drinking alcohol late at night is not a good idea as it reduces your REM sleep while it's being processed in your body. Well. Nothing new there. But some people refuse to listen to good advice.

After the sleep volunteers finished their second week of the experiment at the University of Surrey, the results of switching sleep times were astounding. When the volunteers cut back from seven-and-a-half to six-and-a-half hours' sleep a night, genes that are associated with processes like inflammation, immune response and response to stress became more active. The team also saw increases in the activity of genes associated with diabetes and risk of cancer. The reverse happened when the volunteers added an hour of sleep.

This experiment sends a clear message. If you are getting less than seven hours' sleep a night and can alter your sleep habits, even just a little bit, it could make you healthier. The advice to sleep more doesn't come along very often. And the excuse: It will make you healthier.

I'm lucky to sleep well. I get 8 hours a night, rarely varying the amount. I wake refreshed and eager to get on with my day. How about you?