Smelling Certain Scents While Sleeping Can Greatly Improve Memory, New Study Finds

Chris Malone Méndez
·2 min read
16

Memory loss is a common problem that older folks face later in life. But a new study might provide new hope for those looking to improve their memory.

Researchers at the University of California, Irvine shared their findings in the Frontiers in Neuroscience journal. The group examined 43 adults between the ages of 65 and 80 and their neurological responses to various smells while they slept. Each night, an essential oil diffuser wafted one of seven different scents—rose, orange, eucalyptus, lemon, peppermint, rosemary, and lavender—in the bedroom. After six months, scientists found a 226 percent improvement on a learning and memory test among those who slept with the strong fragrances every night compared to a control group with diffused distilled water.

Study co-author Michael Leon, a professor of neurobiology and behavior at UCI's Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory (CNLM), explained that while the study was small and the team's data collection was interrupted by the pandemic, the findings align with commonly held beliefs about how smell is connected to learning and memory.

"Most people who live in our affluent society are actually deprived chronically of the odor stimulation that their brain needs," Leon told NPR. "The idea is that it will keep the memory centers of your brain in good condition throughout life, and perhaps prevent memory loss older in life."

Related: This Fragrance Diffuser Makes Your Home Smell Good for 800+ Hours

Michael Yassa, a fellow neurobiology professor at UCI's CNLM, described how our sense of smell is intricately tied to our brains, and how its decline in our older years can present neurological problems.

“The reality is that over the age of 60, the olfactory sense and cognition starts to fall off a cliff,” he stated plainly in a statement. "The olfactory sense has the special privilege of being directly connected to the brain's memory circuits."

"Everyone has experienced how powerful aromas are in evoking recollections, even from very long ago," he added. "However, unlike with vision changes that we treat with glasses and hearing aids for hearing impairment, there has been no intervention for the loss of smell."

It might be time to start investing in some aromatherapy tools.