Can Odors Affect Our Dreams?

In the realm of health and wellness, one of the most fascinating topics is that of sleep. There is so much yet to be discovered regarding the role of sleep and dreaming to our physical, mental, and emotional states, but we do know that the both the quality and quantity of sleep we get can have a signifcant impact on our health. The article below caught my interest because it discusses how smells can either positively or negatively influence the type of dreams we may have.

In this day and age of the go-go, 24-hour society that most of us live in, sleep deprivation is a big problem. Studies have shown that poor sleep patterns can increase risk for many health problems. A lack of quality sleep can suppress the immune system, and has been linked to a greater incidence of debilitating diseases such as cancer and others.

It is known that the best sleep is derived when the bedroom is completely dark and as quiet as possible. Today's article touches on the sense of smell, and raises some interesting issues. Aromotherapy is a field that has opened up our understanding as to how smells can be used by the body to help keep us well. Now it appears that odors can also affect us while we sleep and trigger emotional responses that are related to the quality of our dreams. I look forward to learning more about the effects of our amazing sense of smell and its link to sleep as more research comes out.


Sweet smells foster sweet dreams
Sleep with flowers in your bedroom if you want sweet dreams, work suggests.

When the smell of roses had been wafted under the noses of slumbering volunteers they reported experiencing pleasant emotions in their dreams.

An odour of rotten eggs had the opposite effect on the 15 sleeping women, the German scientists found.

They told a Chicago meeting of the American Academy of Otolaryngology that they now plan to study people who suffer from nightmares.

Sweet dreams
It is possible that exposure to smells might help make their dreams more pleasant, believe Professor Boris Stuck and his team from the University Hospital Mannheim.

They waited until their subjects had entered the REM phase of sleep, the stage at which most dreams occur, and then exposed them to a high dose of smelly air for 10 seconds before waking them up one minute later.

The volunteers were then quizzed about the content of their dreams and asked how it made them feel.

The sleeping women hardly ever dreamed of smelling something. Nevertheless, the emotional tone of the dream did change depending on the stimulation.

Previous research has shown that other types of stimulation, such as sound, pressure or vibration, can influence the content and the emotional tone of dreams.

Dr Irshaad Ebrahim of The London Sleep Centre said: "The relationship between external stimuli and dreaming is something we are all at some level aware of.

"This initial research is a step in the direction towards clarifying these questions and may well lead to therapeutic benefits."

Professor Tim Jacob, an expert in smell and taste at Cardiff University, said: "Smell is the only sense that doesn't 'sleep'. Information continues to reach the limbic system of the brain and that includes the hippocampus, or memory area and the amygdala, that is involved with emotional response.

"Other senses have to pass through the 'gate' of the thalamus, which is closed when we sleep."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7628744.stm