Smells may affect your dreams according to one very limited study. It makes sense to me. We already know that things in your environment can affect your dreams.
This study only involved women. I think it would be interesting to do a study of both men and women. As anyone who has ever been married to or otherwise cohabitated with a member of the opposite sex knows men and women have such different senses of smell, it could make you wonder if we really are from two different planets. To men some of the most heavenly scents on Earth smell like “something dead” while some far less pleasant smells – gasoline and other chemical smells – don’t seem to bother them very much. It would be interesting to compare the dreams of men and women who went to sleep smelling roses and others who went sleep smelling gasoline.
September 24th, 2008 - 12:44 pm
I know sounds affect me. I’ve learned that the nights of crazy, distressing dreams tend to be nights when it’s loud in my neighborhood, and the nights when I give up and put in ear plugs at 11 pm (because the neighbor’s darn dog is barking AGAIN), I sleep much more soundly and have less-troubling dreams.
I’ve never really noticed scent, but then I make an effort to keep my bedroom scent-free (other than the scent of clean bed linens, which is a non-scent in my mind).
If they come up with a scent that pretty much uniformly aids sleep, I’d like to know about it.
September 24th, 2008 - 2:02 pm
I’ve heard that lavender is soothing but the people who say that are usually trying to sell lavender scented stuff so I don’t know.
September 24th, 2008 - 2:27 pm
It helps some, but it’s not the panacea that the people who are selling it claim it to be.
September 25th, 2008 - 10:22 am
Have you ever tried Cotton Blossom from Bath and Body Works? It’s not a panacea either but it is a light fresh scent. I like it better than lavender.