Research Suggests that Smells Influence Our Dreams
⊆ 2:16 AM by Prabodh Vinayak Ashtikar | ˜ 0 comments »For millennia humans have pondered the meaning of dreams, and why we dream at all. In more recent times, researchers have begun studying the importance of dreaming to our physiology, and how our dream life is affected by external stimuli.
A research team from Germany has completed a study testing the effects of different odors on dreams. The results of the study, reported in Wired News, suggest that pleasant smelling odors tend to encourage pleasant dreams, while unpleasant smells cause stressful dreams or even nightmares. The research was the first study of its kind investigating the sense of smell in relation to dreaming.
German sleep researchers Michael Schredl and Boris Stuck led the study, which tested the effects of various odors on a group of 15 healthy adult women. Young adult women were specifically targeted by the study, as this demographic has been proven to have the most acute sense of smell.While the participants slept, their room was flushed with 10 seconds sprays of either phenyl-ethyl alcohol (which smells similar to roses), or hydrogen sulfide (famous for its intense “rotten egg” smell). A separate group of participants were used as the control group in the study, and no smells were introduced to the rooms where they slept.
Upon waking, each participant was asked to describe their dreams. The researchers found that the women’s dreams were significantly affected by the introduction of strong odors in the room. Participants exposed to the unpleasant smells while sleeping reported a higher than average percentage of nightmares and unpleasant dreams.
On the other hand, participants who were exposed to pleasing smells reported much more pleasant dream experiences. Interestingly though, none of the participants reported having dreams that involved any type of odor. Scientists say that this phenomenon suggests that the human sense of smell is processed in a radically different way than other senses, such as hearing or sight.
For example, most of us have had a dream which incorporated a beeping alarm clock, or some other random noise in our immediate environment. The fact that smells do not seem to be incorporated into the substance of the dream in the same way suggests that the sense of smell is processed in a more complicated way than previously thought, utilizing several different areas of the brain.
Interestingly, the research also discovered that even strong and unpleasant smells will not typically awaken a sleeper who is dreaming. The team noticed that even intense rotten egg smells did not awaken the female participants in the study.
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