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How Does Sleep Affect Your Sense of Smell?
As anyone with a stuffy nose can tell you, the strength of our sense of smell is not always the same. One factor that influences the olfactory system is your circadian rhythm. This part of our biological clock is known for how it promotes sleeping during the night and wakefulness during the day, but it affects numerous other bodily processes as well.
Researchers found that smell sensitivity changes through the day in accordance with our circadian timing. In general, sense of smell is the strongest in the evening (around 9:00 p.m.) and weakest overnight and into the wee hours of the morning. This reduction in smell sensitivity through the night may explain why odors generally don’t cause people to wake up from sleep.
Research has found that external stimuli during sleep, including smells, can affect dreams, but the nature of this effect remains unclear. In one study, positively associated smells promoted more positive dreams while unpleasant smells increased negative dreams. Other research, though, found the opposite, with exposure to a familiar odor or a preferred fragrance causing more negative dreams.
Many factors can influence dreams, and additional investigation is needed before it’s clear if and how aromatherapy can be used to affect dreams.
Memories are strengthened during sleep, which is part of why it’s important for learning. Sleep scientists have explored ways to reinforce this memory consolidation process, including exposure to smells during sleep.
The focus of this learning technique is to use odors as a memory cue. To accomplish this, a person is exposed to a specific fragrance while awake and learning new information. Then, they are exposed to that same fragrance during sleep. In a study of school children, memory recall on a vocabulary test was improved by this odor-based cueing. Additional benefits may come from being exposed to that same smell during testing the next day as well.
While this method does not eliminate the hard work of having to learn new material, it may benefit students and others who want to boost their chances of building useful memory during sleep.
While many people are intrigued by aromatherapy to help them sleep, others want to know how to harness smells to feel more alert in the morning.
Getting good sleep is your best bet for waking up refreshed and ready to go, and aromatherapy won’t make up for insufficient sleep. That said, some smells may increase your attention and energy in the morning or through the day.
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