To avoid nightmares, smell the roses

What you smell while sleeping will affect what you encounter in your dreams, but in particular the smell of rotten eggs causes nightmares, and the smell of roses brings sweet emotions.

In a study of 15 healthy young women, Dr. Boris Stuck and colleagues, from the University of Heidelberg, Germany, gave these people a deep sleep, to the stage of dreams (REM sleep stage). smelling one of three types: odorless (odor proof), smell of rose and smell of rotten eggs. Each girl was tested 3 times, on each different smell.

When they awoke, they were asked to tell their dreams. Volunteers are also asked to rate their content on a scale of 0-3, where 0 is not a color, and 3 is very beautiful.

Odor stimulation can change dreams.Photo: ABC.

As a result, after smelling the smell of verification, the average degree of dream appeal is 0.5. After smelling rotten eggs, this number decreased to - 0.4, and increased to 1.2 after smelling the rose.

"When stimulating participants to experiment with a positive smell, the dream becomes even more beautiful, and vice versa when stimulating with a negative odor, emotional nuances turn uncomfortable," Stuck said.

Although people sleep almost never dreaming of sniffing something. But the emotional nuance of the dream will change depending on the stimulus, the team concluded.