Can smell affects our dreams?

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I’m sure most of us dreams of colors, pictures, sort of an episodes in our dreams. Often times we hear music, voices, like a cinematic occurrence but have you ever experienced a scent in a dream?

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Do scents happen in a dream? Is there an olfactory dreamer?

Some are still wondering how does it goes or how it happens when we have one or does it even exist?

Researchers have their own statement on this occurrence and come up with their different conclusions and theories:

Prof. Rachel Herz a psychiatrist of Brown University concluded people do not respond to odors while they are in the dreaming phase of sleep (REM) or deep sleep. Rather she says if we briefly wake up and perceive the scent, it will wake us further if we’re interested in it. She also added that any odors experienced in a dream are created by the brain and not from the outside.

Contrary from Prof. Thomas Hummel of the University of Dresden’s Smell and Taste clinic, his theory concludes that smell doesn’t take us wake from sleep, he suggests that it is the olfactory stimuli.

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Although both of their theories doesn’t explain how does an odor effect in our sleep, they both agree that an olfactory dreamers exist only they are very rare.

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Until a research presented by the American Academy of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery Foundation (AAO-HNSF) & OTO EXPO in Chicago, Illinois conducted an intranasal chemosensory stimulation to fifteen volunteers for an experiment during in their rapid eye movement sleep based on air-dilution olfactometry. Research has simulated that an external stimuli during sleep can affect the information processing of the sleeping brain.

With the use of olfactory stimulation, hydrogen sulfide (smell of rotten egg) and phenyl ethyl alcohol (smell of roses) were used as basis and assimilate with control condition without the stimulation.

The result reveals that olfactory stimuli affect the emotional content of dreams: the roses gain the more positive dreams while the hydrogen sulfide produce a negative dream. Findings point that olfactory stimuli process is active during sleep and affects depending on the hedonic characteristic of the used stimulus.

Researchers also added that it is possible to find treatment through this study thus it could be used for people having a sleep disorder.

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The point here it is not impossible to have an olfactory dream however there’s a person who’s very descriptive of how she dreams of a scents and not just once but most of her dreams are fragrant. Francesca Faruolo insist that “Olfactory dreamers do exist”, most of the time they are the ones who have a very sensitive or highly trained of sense of smell.

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If you have one please don't hesitate to leave a comment, I'll be glad to know if there's any. Can't wait to read some of your experiences. 'Til next time guys!

Sincerely yours,
Unicorn-Girl
@ja9garnett

References:

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-27590756
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-09/aaoo-osm091508.php
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2869.2009.00737.x/full