The EU’s new Entry/Exit System (EES) has fully kicked into place for UK passengers after its October rollout.

It’s a biometric system (including a photo and/or fingerprints) that registers non-EU nationals every time they make a short stay in Schengen countries.

The EU’s site says it’s designed to eventually replace passport stamps and offer a more “efficient” version of EU check-ins. But so far, there have been early hiccups: EES has been blamed for border delays that left passengers behind and “hours-long queues”.

In response, airlines like TUI, Jet2, and easyJet have shared advice.

The Schengen countries involved are:

• Austria,
• Belgium,
• Bulgaria,
• Croatia,
• Czechia,
• Denmark,
• Estonia,
• Finland,
• France,
• Germany,
• Greece,
• Hungary,
• Iceland,
• Italy,
• Latvia,
• Liechtenstein,
• Lithuania,
• Luxembourg,
• Malta,
• Netherlands,
• Norway,
• Poland,
• Portugal,
• Romania,
• Slovakia,
• Slovenia,
• Spain,
• Sweden, and
• Switzerland.

The Republic of Ireland and Cyprus are excluded from EES systems as they’re not Schengen countries.

The advice so far includes:

Their site reads, “You should allow extra time to register your biometric details, such as fingerprints and a photo, the first time you enter the EU. There is no cost for EES registration, and your digital record will last three years before you need to register again.”

And responding to an X post by a passenger, the company added: “We ask customers travelling on our European short-haul flights to be there two hours prior to departure. It would be three hours if you’re travelling on a long-haul flight and one if you’re travelling on a domestic flight within the UK.”

In a travel alert, they said: “At some airports, you might still find longer queues, particularly at busy travel periods.”

They added, “To help your journey run as smoothly as possible, please allow a little extra time when passing through border control. Keep any essential medication in your hand luggage in case of delays, and when departing the EU, head straight to passport control after dropping your bags to avoid hold‑ups. Bringing some extra water for comfort is also a good idea.”

The company shared, “There may be longer wait times at Border Control at some EU Airports, especially at busy times. Once you start your EES registration, it should take around 1-2 minutes per person to complete.

“There may be longer wait times than usual when you arrive in destination and before your flight back to the UK. Unfortunately, this is outside of our control. But remember, there’s nothing you can prep before you travel.”

The airline added, “You’ll also need to pass through EES when leaving the EU in the same way you do on arrival. Depending on how busy the airport is, this may result in longer wait times at passport control before boarding your flight to the UK. After checking in for your flight, please head straight to security and passport control in order to arrive at your gate in plenty of time.”

The airline pointed out that while kids under 12 are exempt from fingerprinting, passengers “may experience longer waiting times on arrival, so allow extra time and factor this in when planning onward travel, including trains, taxis, or flight transfers”.

Plan your journey, arrive early, use Bag Drop as soon as possible if you’re availing of the service, get through security as fast as possible, and “be aware that there may be further checks at passport control after security and before reaching your gate,” they said.

They warned that queues might be longer as airports adjust to the system.

“Have your passport ready and follow EES signs,” they wrote.

“We recommend arriving at the airport with extra time to allow for these additional checks, especially during busy travel periods.”

We’ve written before at HuffPost UK about when dementia experts think we should consider giving up booze for good to keep our brains healthy.

Speaking to HuffPost UK, Dr Arun Narayanan, a clinical electrophysiologist and an assistant professor of medicine in the division of cardiology at the University of Texas Medical Branch, said that another beverage – energy drinks – might carry risks for our hearts, too.

“Energy drinks may affect the heart differently [than other caffeinated drinks] because they often deliver caffeine in larger doses, more quickly, and in combination with additional stimulants or additives,” he shared.

“This can increase the risk of palpitations, elevated blood pressure, abnormal heart rhythms, and, in susceptible individuals, more serious cardiac events. Tea and coffee are generally better studied, more predictable in composition, and less likely to contain multiple stimulant compounds in a single serving,” he said.

We asked the expert what he thinks the upper limit of energy drink consumption should be in a single day, as well as at what age (if any) we should quit it cold turkey.

Dr Narayanan said, “In general, I would recommend limiting energy drinks to no more than one standard-sized can per day, and for many individuals, avoiding them altogether may be the safer choice”.

The expert said 400mg of caffeine a day is often considered the safe limit.

“Unlike coffee or tea, many energy drinks contain high caffeine concentrations consumed rapidly, along with sugar, taurine, guarana, and other stimulants that may amplify cardiovascular effects,” he said.

Too much caffeine may “increase heart rate, blood pressure, palpitations, anxiety, and sleep disruption.”

Dr Narayanan told us it’s not so much about a person’s age as it is their health.

“Rather than age alone, the more important issue is underlying health status. Older adults are more likely to have hypertension, coronary artery disease, atrial fibrillation, or other rhythm disorders that can be worsened by stimulant beverages,” he said.

“I would advise individuals with cardiovascular disease, arrhythmias, uncontrolled blood pressure, or frailty to avoid energy drinks regardless of age. For healthy older adults, caution and moderation are still appropriate.”

I have insomnia, but not the kind that means I struggle to fall asleep (in fact, the speed and ease with which I nod off at night put me off seeking help for years).

Instead, the problem happens in the early hours of the morning. It reaches roughly 3am, and my body wakes me up – a common enough process, but one which I, for some reason, don’t recover from.

After the disruption, I stay up for hours, only feeling able to sleep when it’s time to get up and go to work. This persists no matter how much shut-eye I do (or don’t) get, how much exercise I do, or how early I go to bed.

If that sounds familiar, you – like me – may have something called sleep maintenance insomnia.

According to Harvard Health, the term refers to a lack of sleep that happens not because someone can’t nod off, but because they wake up and can’t fall back asleep.

In America, it’s believed to affect as many as one in five people (and while there doesn’t seem to be much data on the phenomenon in the UK, one in three adults here are thought to experience acute insomnia at some point).

Harvard Health added that the condition might be especially common in women during midlife.

Health problems, family stresses, depression, and even hot flashes might play a role.

As, they say, can age: “as we grow older, the normal sleep cycle becomes shorter, and we spend less time in deep sleep”.

Dr Karen Carlson, a doctor who runs classes focusing on women’s sleep quality at Boston’s Massachusetts General Hospital, told Harvard Health that going to bed really early to “make up” for missed sleep might not help.

“What sometimes happens is that women are going to bed early trying to sleep and then they wake up at 3 or 4am – and they’re not really meant to sleep more than six or seven hours, but they’re in bed early trying, and they awaken early.”

What may help, however, is “clock blocking”, or ignoring any screen which tells you the time, Johns Hopkins shared.

So, too, can getting up out of bed to do something screen-free and relatively mindless, like folding laundry after about 20 minutes of being awake ― or, as Johns Hopkins sleep expert Dr Luis F. Buenaver said, try to “Read a book, with just enough lights on so that you can see the print comfortably”.

Try as much as you can to stick to your regular routine the day after a bad night’s sleep, he continued.

Speak to your doctor if sleep issues persist for weeks and/or affect your day-to-day life.

GP Dr Dominic Greyer previously shared that strength training, good sleep, reducing inflammation, maintaining your “metabolic flexibility,” and enjoying life (in moderation) separates those who age well from those who don’t.

And a new paper, which focused on the short-lived African turqioise killifish, aimed to work out how different behaviours appeared to affect their ageing trajectories.

The fish, which were partly chosen because they shared “key biological features with longer-lived species like humans, including a complex brain”, shared the same genes and were raised in similar environments.

Researchers found that by midlife (for the fish, 70-100 days), fish that lived longer were already behaving differently from those that died sooner.

Study leader Claire Bedbrook said, “Behavioural changes pretty early on in life are telling us about future health and future lifespan”.

In this study, one of the biggest factors was sleep. Fish that had longer lives mostly slept at night, while those with shorter lifespans slept both at night and during the day.

Incidentally, longer naps, more disorganised nap times, and a higher percentage of naps taken at noon and in the early afternoon have been linked to increased mortality risk among humans.

But activity mattered too.

Fish who swam harder and faster were likelier to live longer, “a measure of spontaneous movement that has been linked to longevity in other species as well”.

And fish that lived longer were more active in the daylight as well. A separate human study found that those who did the majority of their physical activity between 11am and 5pm, or mixed throughout the day, had a lower cardiovascular and all-cause mortality risk than those who moved mostly in the early morning or at night.

The researchers noticed that ageing seemed to occur in two to six stages rather than gradually.

“We expected ageing to be a slow, gradual process,” Bedbrook said.

“Instead, animals stay stable for long periods and then transition very quickly into a new stage. Seeing this staged architecture appear from continuous behaviour alone was one of the most exciting discoveries.”

Similar patterns have recently been noted in humans.

In an editor’s summary, senior editor at the journal Science, Mattia Maroso, said: “These results might lead to better understanding of the ageing process in other vertebrates, including humans”.

And speaking to Stanford Reports, study leader Ravi Nath said, “Behaviour turns out to be an incredibly sensitive readout of ageing… You can look at two animals of the same chronological age and see from their behaviour alone that they’re ageing very differently”.

The other study leader, Claire Bedbrook, shared, “We now have the tools to map ageing continuously in a vertebrate… With the rise of wearables and long-term tracking in humans, I’m excited to see whether the same principles – early predictors, staged ageing, divergent trajectories – hold true in people”.

I’ll rant to anyone I know about the importance of maintaining muscle mass as we age to prevent conditions like sacropeonia and even osteoporosis.

Cardiovascular health has also been linked to longevity.

But what about flexibility? Though it might be less talked about than the other two, this, too, has been linked to a longer life, especially among men.

You may know the importance of lifting weights for strength and understand that everything from tennis to cycling and running can improve your heart health.

What, though, does a person to increase their flexibility – and does it change over time?

We asked personal trainers to share their thoughts:

James Bickerstaff, a personal trainer at Origym, told us: “In your 20s and 30s, your body still has natural elasticity, so muscles and joints move easily and recover quickly”.

Nonetheless, he adds, sitting for long periods of time (as you may do for work) can hold your flexibility back.

“To maintain mobility, focus on stretching major muscle groups by performing dynamic stretches such as leg swings for the hips and static chest openers for the upper body,” he advised.

“Short daily sessions, along with activities like yoga, Pilates, or tai chi, can help prevent stiffness.”

Trainer and owner of Made Possible Personal Training, a gym which works mainly with those aged 50 and up, Heather Lachance, said: “One of the biggest things I try to help people understand is that losing flexibility isn’t a given”.

But in our 40s and 50s, she said, more of us notice we’re not as flexible as we used to be.

“At this stage, adding 10 minutes of mobility work a few times a week, especially dynamic movements before workouts and static stretches afterwards, can go a long way,” she advised.

“Leg swings, hip openers, thoracic rotations, that sort of thing. It doesn’t need to be complicated; it just needs to be done consistently.”

For his part, Bickerstaff recommends swimming and dancing alongside stretches.

“In your 60s and later years, joints become less mobile, cartilage thins, and muscles tighten more easily,” Bickerstaff explained.

“This can make everyday tasks feel restricted and raise the risk of falls. At this stage, flexibility work is about protecting independence and helping you move safely.”

Lachance stated that yoga and pilates can be great in this decade as they provide a “low-impact” form of exercise.

At this age, Lachance said, “The conversation becomes more about maintaining independence, things like being able to get up off the floor, move confidently through space, and reduce the falling risk.

“Here, I pair flexibility with balance and strength work. Chair-based stretching, simple guided routines, and daily movement all play a role.”

Sated hamstring and tricep stretches can help, Bickerstaff agreed, as can resistance bands and plain ol’ walking ― gentle, daily movement is key.

“No matter the age, the message is the same: you don’t need to be able to do the splits, but you do need to move well enough to live your life without restriction,” Lachance ended.

“Flexibility is really about freedom! Freedom to keep doing the things you enjoy without pain or hesitation.”

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There’s nothing worse than a bad night of sleep. You wake up feeling tired; you can’t focus; and even worse, you know it will be the same the next night.

If you’re one of the 10 million people in the UK with sleep apnoea, you’ll know this all too well.

Then there’s the having to deal with the impact on your relationship and worrying about the affect it has on your overall health. Not to mention having to be strapped up to a CPAP machine every night – which is boring, bulky, and uncomfortable.

But now, there might be a solution to more restful sleep. As most cases of sleep apnoea are caused by throat obstruction during the night, Derila has created a pillow specifically designed to keep your airway open as you snore.

Shaped like a butterfly, the pillow is not only made of cooling, hypoallergenic material, but its ergonomic shape contours your head and neck to keep them in a neutral position.

For those with mild to moderate sleep apnoea, this could stop the airway from narrowing during sleep – whether you sleep on your back, side, or stomach.

The Derila pillow can also be used at the same time as a CPAP machine, which can help with aligning your head to the mask and reducing leaks.

The result? Less snoring, not waking up so much during the night, and (the cherry on top) feeling less groggy and more energised in the morning.

So much so that 87% of testers reported better sleep within their first week of using the Derila pillow.

But you don’t have to take their word for it. Here’s what Derila customers said about the pillow:

One reviewer said: “Yesterday I received my pillow and last night I had the best nights sleep in a very long time. My husband also commented that I didn’t snore last night , so hopefully I will continue to sleep peacefully and in the same way as last night.”

Meanwhile, another buyer said the pillow has improved sleep for them and their partner: “The pillow fits our neck very well, even when we turn. I wear a CPAP every night, and my wife wears an oxygen thing in her nose. We can turn and our breathing is not affected.”

“Since getting the pillow, I’ve had no more neck pain,” another reviewer claimed. “My sleep apnoea has improved significantly.”

I don’t know whether I notice it more in the sunshine or if flies really do come out en masse in spring, but I feel like I’ve noticed a lot more of the unwelcome visitors on my houseplants recently.

And while I’ve found vinegar and washing-up liquid traps are a really effective way to manage a fruit fly bonanza, I can’t help but wish there was an easier, less deadly way to de-fly my ferns.

Luckily, plant educator Peyton, known online as Plant Caregiver, is one of a few voices to suggest a chemical-free method: in a TikTok video, the creator said, “a lot of your plant problems could be fixed by having a fan”.

Speaking to Homes & Gardens, Julia Omelchenko, an expert in plants for the Plantum app, explained that proper ventilation and air flow keep soil drier, preventing a buildup of, e.g., fungus gnats.

That can involve opening a window. But it can also include running a “fan on low speeds where your plants are situated,” so long as you “avoid cold drafts and don’t point the fan at the plants,” she added.

Aside from preventing wet soil, which fungus gnats love, using a fan also helps to create an environment in which fruit flies struggle to fly (they have quite weak wings).

An Ideal Homes writer put it to the test and was impressed with the result. And, more recently, a Guardian writer and houseplant expert tried it on a mildewy plant; she wrote, “It’s one of those hacks that sounds unnecessary until you try it”.

As we’ve mentioned before, soil that stays wet for too long can attract fungus gnats. Try watering your soil less often if that’s the case.

Adding a gravel mulch, using sticky traps, and even using predatory nematodes can all help, too, per BBC Gardener’s World.

You can also change the potting soil to that which has been specially formulated for houseplants.

Attracting wildlife to your garden is one of the best ways you can help out the planet, control pests, and support struggling species.

Speaking to HuffPost UK previously, Helen Bostock, a senior wildlife specialist at the Royal Horticultural Society, said: “Environments are more resilient and function better when there is both species and genetic diversity, helping combat challenges such as climate change, carbon capture and pollution.”

There are many ways to do this, from making a little pond out of an old washing-up bowl to putting out water for hedgehogs. But wildflowers can help too, says Elise Harlock, a floral expert at Prestige Flowers.

“Small changes can really help to create a thriving natural environment… By adding the right flowers to your garden, you can support biodiversity and make it look extra beautiful,” she said.

Here are the best ones to get in the ground for a more buzzing backyard this summer:

Beloved by bees, butterflies, and hoverflies, those “single-layered, long petal flowers are easiest for insects to feed and pollinate from,” Harlock said.

And because it’s such a favourite of so many insects, “you’ll see the flowers full of creatures all summer long”.

Safety: Mildly toxic to dogs if ingested and can be toxic to cats.

Lavender loves sunny spots, but if your garden is a little short on those, try foxglove instead.

“Foxgloves thrive in shade, so you can grow them in almost any garden type,” Harlock told us. “Their colourful flowers and height are great for adding depth to a garden, but also act as safe, tubular and nectar-rich environments for insects.”

Flowers in: June to September

Safety: Very toxic to adults, children, and pets if ingested. Don’t plant in places where either kids or pets play.

“These daisy-like flowers are excellent for butterflies and bees. The open and flat structure of the flower head makes them perfect pollen-heavy landing spots, whilst adding loads of bright colour to your flower beds,” the expert said.

Even better: their seedheads make amazing food for birds once the flowers have died out.

Flowers in: July to late August

Safety: Generally considered safe for pets and children, though some adults and children may have an extreme allergic reaction to the plant.

“Everyone knows sunflowers are great for bees, but few know why,” Harlock told us.

“Their centres are bursting with nectar, which makes them a rich source for pollinators, so planting even one or two in your garden is guaranteed to attract plenty of bees.”

However, they need a lot of sun (shocker), so make sure your garden has enough light before planting them.

Flowers in: July to September

Safety: Non-toxic to cats, dogs, horses, and children.

“Bees and butterflies love the sweet scent of peonies, and they’re a really beautiful addition to any summer garden,” the flower expert said.

Flowers in: April to July

Safety: Toxic to dogs, cats, and horses, and toxic to children if ingested.