I’m sure most of us are ready to believe that the dog is man’s best friend. But did we know that they actually seem to understand us even better than our closest relatives (no, not those ones) the chimpanzee? Oh yes, they do. And we understand them right back.

Studies of the eye movements of dogs when they look at us show that they do so in exactly the same way as humans do with each other – they look slightly more at the left side of the face. They respond easily to our instructions, emotions and needs. When they recorded different barks and played them back to people, there was remarkable unanimity on what those barks meant; for example, give me the ball, who’s this stranger on the other side of the fence, untie me, etc. But how did dogs get to be so tuned in to human beings? Is it that they’re socialized wolves and foxes? In fact, would wolves behave the same if they’re kept as pets?

This BBC Horizon documentary takes a good long look at dogs and us. Not only is it really nice to watch because you see so many dogs but also because of the interesting facts and studies that would add to your understanding of these lovely companions.

The name of the film is of course all wrong, but I’ve become used to every second documentary from the top channels being secret this and secret that. If you get a chance to see this documentary – or should I say, dogumentary – catch it. Oh wait a minute, here it is on youtube.

In this brilliant one-and-a-half-hour show, BBC host Robert Winston examines common sleep problems. To help him, there are six volunteers and various sleep experts and health professionals.

Although the show is Britain-focused, the advice and tips apply to anyone anywhere who has sleep problems. BBC has a bunch of documentaries about sleep and dreaming, but this one is unique because it’s designed to be a practical guide. Very well done and very watchable right through.

Over the show, they put volunteers through several tests, determining what kind of sleepers they are and what levels their executive skills (concentration, attention, reaction time etc) are. Everyone also goes through sleep profiling – including us viewers. The volunteers get customized advice and try and act on it by making changes to their environment, routine or pattern of sleeping. And finally everyone goes through the tests again to compare. Everyone showed improvement except for one person who was disqualified because he changed his situation halfway through by quitting his night job.

Among the problems taken up were snoring loud enough to wake your family, neighbors and yourself up, not being able to get to sleep because the baby is crying all night, being completely zombied from tough night shifts, being under so much stress you can’t sleep etc. \

One volunteer had such a busy jam-packed room it was impossible to relax in it. Only she didn’t realize it and felt she must have all her worldly possessions around her within reach. There was, of course, a space constraint to begin with. So what was she to do? An expert visited her apartment and found it was more like a cell than a sanctuary. They helped her reorganize her room, leaving one side of it for storage and one for rest. And a lot of her things were put out of sight. Also, they had her change the colors of things like the bed linen, which was also very busy. The room was redesigned for rest. She loved it. Clean and spacious looking, ivory sheets, a soft light – she was finally able to sleep. Makes me want to get rid of all the bright orange stuff I have in my own bedroom!

If you can’t get hold of this show, visit the BBC’s site on sleep at http://bbc.co.uk/sleep and profile your sleep to figure out whether you’re a night or day person, whether your work interferes with your sleep etc. Also browse the guidelines and tips on the site.

“If only I could say, it’s over, you only die once…”.

The words of 14-year-old Rutka Laskier living in Bedzin, Poland as the Nazi noose became tighter and tighter around her family and the Jewish people.

If all were well with this world, this beautiful child should have been worrying her head about little more than whether it’s a good idea to let her school friend Yanek kiss her or not. Instead, she spent whatever time she could get chronicling the incomprehensible blood chilling events taking place around her. In a little notebook later hidden carefully under the double flooring of the staircase, Rutka wrote of life in the ghetto in Bedzin. Just three months of it. After that, Rutka and her family were deported to Auschwitz.

Rutka’s diary is reminiscent of Anne Frank’s, but unlike Anne, she had experiences that are far more horrific before she was finally sent to the concentration camp. In the ghetto, each day became a struggle for good and survival. She knew, without a doubt, that she would have to die. “I’m turning into an animal, waiting to die”, she wrote.

Her 60-page notebook was published relatively recently, in 2007. The story of the diary itself is remarkable. Rutka’s friend later went back to the house and retrieved it and kept it with her for 63 years, not showing it to anyone. The Center of Jewish Culture eventually heard of it and weas able to get a photocopy and have it published as the historical document Rutka had meant it to be.

The other remarkable fact is that Rutka was  “discovered” by her half sister, Zahava. The only person who survived from the Laskier family was Rutka’s father and he later remarried and had children. Zahava saw a photograph of Rutka and began to wonder who this was and how she looked so very much like her. Her father would not tell her much but finally admitted she was her half sister. Zahava went to Poland to try and retrace the little girl’s life and death. She later named her own daughter Ruth.

This story of Rutka Laskier and her diary was told in a BBC documentary called The Secret Diary of the Holocaust. The documentary is in parts on Youtube.