Suffering from bad dreams? Don’t just dream of better sleep. Get yourself some roses.
Scientists in Germany have discovered a correlation between dreams and scent. While pleasing smells seem to result in positive dreams, offensive odors can lead to nightmares. Studies lead by Professor Boris Stuck at the University Hospital Mannheim involved 15 sleeping volunteers exposed to various scents during REM sleep. They were soon awakened and interrogated regarding the content of their dreams.
“The emotional coloration of dreams,” stated the researchers at a Chicago meeting of the American Academy of Otolaryngology, “can be significantly influenced in accordance with the hedonic aspect of the stimulant.”
According to Cardiff University’s Professor Tim Jacob, “Smell is the only sense that doesn’t ’sleep’… Other senses have to pass through the ‘gate’ of the thalamus, which is closed when we sleep.”
The researchers are currently planning a study involving people suffering from nightmares.
And if your partner has a problem with flatulence in the middle of the night, you finally have an excuse to kick him or her out of bed.
