German researchers have found that different smells can influence your dreams. When study participants were exposed to bad smells (researchers used rotten eggs), they generally had bad dreams. When study participants were exposed to good smells (researchers used roses), the dreams were generally good ones.
It does make sense — smell stimulates a whole lot of behaviors in the body. Different scents can influence emotion, bring back memories, increase or decrease appetite, and even stimulate sexual arousal. Dangerous smells can even trigger a fight-or-flight response. The scent of burning (even if it’s just my neighbors using their grill on the back porch) often gets my heart thumping until I figure out the source.
Compared to the animal kingdom, humans are pretty nose-challenged. We only have about four hundred odor receptors in the nasal cavity — to compare, rodents have more than a thousand. But scent molecules hit the odor receptors and go right into the brain. Humans have the capacity to identify more than ten thousand different scents as we breathe.
Pretty amazing, even if we are practically scent-blind.
I do tend to have (and remember) vivid dreams and nightmares when I’m stressed or anxious. It’s just how my brain processes the emotions, I guess. Sometimes, I don’t want to go back to sleep for fear of jumping right back into the dream. It doesn’t make for a very restful night, that’s for sure.
The next time I wake up sweaty and scared from a nightmare, I’m going to try the scent trick. Goodness knows I have enough aromatherapy stuff around! Something soothing like lavender might work well. I’m also a fan of vanilla — I find it to be a very comforting scent. Citrus scents are also on my list of favorites, but I think those would tend to wake me up more, rather than soothe me back into sleep.
And maybe I’ll kick my dog Moose out of bed — he tends to be gassy.