TIL: Smelling My Boyfriend's Shirt Reduces My Stress
Have you ever been through moments of panic and anxiety? Have you noticed how these feelings seem to cool down when you make it into your SO's arms with your head protectively hidden in their chest, sniffing their unique body scent? Well, science has now a reason for that!
Image from: pixabay.com
How the story goes
A recent study has concluded that the scent of our significant other can reduce cortisol levels, making us feel more relaxed. The research was conducted by lead author Marlise Hofer, at the University of British Columbia and was published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (you can get the whole paper here: psycnet.apa.org - unfortunately, it's not for free).
For the study, 96 opposite-sex couples were "recruited".
The men...
... were given a T-shirt to wear for 24 hours. The instructions were simple, wear the T-shirt and don't use anything that could spoil their natural smell, like deodorants, perfumes, food that mess with your body scent and smoking.
The women...
... were randomly given a T-shirt to smell (the piece of clothing was either unworn, worn by their SO or by a stranger). Then it was time to go through various stress tests including:a mock job interview and a mental math task. They were asked questions to evaluate their stress levels. Saliva samples were also given to measure their cortisol levels.
The results...
... showed that the less stressed were the women who had smelled their partner's T-shirt. They had lower stress levels both before and after the stress tests. The ones who were able to identify their partner's smell also had lower cortisol levels. This implies that when being aware of the smell, the effects on the body are greater. On the other hand, the women who smelled a T-shirt worn by a stranger showed higher cortisol levels during the stress tests.
Why test only women?
Because their sense of smell is more acute than in men.
What do the results teach us?
It is probably evolution and primitive survival instincts to blame. Women smelling a stranger's T-shirt had higher cortisol levels. Hofer says this might be explained by the fact that:
"From a young age, humans fear strangers, especially strange males, so it is possible that a strange male scent triggers the 'fight or flight' response that leads to elevated cortisol. This could happen without us being fully aware of it." [source]
"Our findings suggest that a partner's scent alone, even without their physical presence, can be a powerful tool to help reduce stress." [source]
Senior author and assistant professor in the UBC department of psychology, Frances Chen, said applying this simple trick in real life can help people cope with stressful situations:
"With globalization, people are increasingly traveling for work and moving to new cities. Our research suggests that something as simple as taking an article of clothing that was worn by your loved one could help lower stress levels when you're far from home." [source]
Image from: pixabay.com
Stress is always bad, right?
The answer is no! Stress is a physical response powered by our survival instinct. When we are in danger, stress comes up, it helps the body realise it is threatened and prepare for "fight or flight". A cocktail of chemicals and hormones like adrenaline, cortisol and norepinephrine are released to keep the body on alert and ready for action. Other "measures" the body takes is to suppress unnecessary functions and pump more blood to the muscles in order to react to stimuli from the surrounding environment (stressors when we refer to stress inducing factors). Sweating and fast breathing are also present. All this is really helpful when a real danger is in front of us.
When the "fight mode" is on, the body is ready to deal with the danger, showing aggresive behavior. In "flight mode" the body avoids the danger and runs away. There is also a third, "freeze mode" that expresses itself by an inability to react as the energy from the stimulus of danger gets "locked" into our nervous system.
Unfortunately, stress attacks even on a false alarm. When the body is stressed, the blood is directed to the muscles in charge for defending the body or running away, which means that we lose the ability to focus and think clearly. The results can be really harmful if stress persists for long periods. When cortisol levels are high, then blood pressure and sugar can also increase whereas the opposite happens to your libido.
Three types of stress
- Acute stress: the most common type. It is short-term and is caused upon thinking of a pressing event of the recent past or the near future.
- Episodic acute stress: when acute stress situations become too often. The person ends up irritable and tense on a regular basis, something that may lead to increased blood pressure and heart disease.
- Chronic stress: when no escape from a stressful situation is possible or the person has given up on trying to cope with it. Chronic stress might have its roots in a traumatic experience earlier in a person't life and when not dealt with, it can lead to a final breakdown including heart attack, stroke, suicide and violent actions.
Effects on the body include:
sweating - pain in the back or chest - cramps or muscle spasms - erectile dysfunction and loss of libido - fainting - headache - heart disease - high blood pressure - - lower immunity against diseases - muscular aches - nervous twitches - pins and needles - sleeping difficulties - stomach upset [source]
Emotional reactions include:
anger - anxiety - burnout - concentration issues - depression - fatigue - a feeling of insecurity - forgetfulness - irritability - nail biting - restlessness - sadness [source]
Stress-related behaviors include:
food cravings and eating too much or too little - sudden angry outbursts - drug and alcohol abuse - higher tobacco consumption - social withdrawal - frequent crying - relationship problems [source]
Causes
They are really subjective as what might be stressful for me, for another individual may seem indifferent or unimportant. But examples of: financial problems - family issues - problems at work, act as stressors.
How can I fight it?
Through proper medication (only when it is recommended by your doctor) and management techniques, stress that renders you dysfunctional in your everyday life can be coped with. Taking time for yourself, exercising and trying out breathing techniques are some of the best and harmless methods to fight it or you can follow...
... the main idea of the study:
A loved person's smell can help you calm down when feeling stressed, even when the specific person is not physically present. So, the next time you feel all sweaty and agitated because you missed an important deadline or got stuck in traffic and arrived late at work, make sure you carry a piece of your partner's clothing to sniff on.
Image from: pexels.com
And a dark twist
If you haven't watched it, I recommend The Perfume (even though I think the book must be better than the silver screen version). Just don't get any crazy ideas after it...
References
sciencedaily.com
news.ubc.ca
psycnet.apa.org
stress.org.uk
medicalnewstoday.com
Thank you so much for your time!
Until my next post,
Steem on and keep smiling, people!
Interesting concept!... lots of info researched...thanks
Thank you for reading! :)
One of my favorite books EVER:
Jitterbug Perfume
is an epic.
Which is to say, it begins in the forests of ancient Bohemia and doesn’t conclude until nine o’clock tonight (Paris time).
It is a saga, as well. A saga must have a hero, and the hero of this one is a janitor with a missing bottle.
The bottle is blue, very, very old, and embossed with the image of a goat-horned god.
If the liquid in the bottle actually is the secret essence of the universe, as some folks seem to think, it had better be discovered soon because it is leaking and there is only a drop or two left.
I have written a musical with Tom Robbins called "B is for Beer". He is awesome. We are currently making an album of the songs. I will be sharing more about this project on Steemit in the near future. Jitterbug Perfume is amazing!
It sounds like a mixture of fantasy and action, or am I wrong?
How could you be wrong about a goat-horned god? You could only be right :-)
(Reading the book is like listening to jazz, only better)
You got me curious! :)
does this work with dirty underwear?
Doesn't everything?
You got a point. I ll hand some to my gf in case of emergency!
Would you like to message the researchers for a future experiment?
Email: [email protected]
Very good article. Spot on! From a male perspective having a scent that is low in cortisol (long term cortisol) and high in T is very important in finding a mate. This is also one reason why men mostly are encouraged to bath a lot and use deodorants as to stabilise the office environment.
Thank you for the input! I just love how chemistry controls our behavior! :)
Since it is hardy possibly to determine something like "accuracy" as it comes to perception i am not so sure about the "accuracy" of this very statement, but one thing is sure: The female hormone balance is more directly and more strongly linked with the subconscious smell perception than in men, hence this allows for a way better correlation. The result of the study is therefore applicable in its full breadth and validity only to women. Nonetheless, a really cool research project. :)
Excellent notice and thank you! :)
That's how the article justified the testing on women. Unfortunately I didn't have access to the whole paper. But I intend to search it a bit further next week to see how came that conclusion of women being better "smellers"
At least a method to reduce women falling into flight mode and running away of from strange males too fast has been developed already 👠 ...not sure, what it does to the stress level of either party ;-)
Ahahahaha! This method is more in favor of men I guess, women don't fall into flight mode and men's blood pressure keeps rising (in a good way) :P
The sense of smell is a wonderful thing. Some smell just reminds one of certain event or even give you a nostalgic feeling of home or somewhere special. Any idea the reason female sense of smell is more acute to that of males? I've heard it a lot of places just never read why that is so.
I didn't look it up TBH, but that's a good idea for a next post ;)
Ok. I'd be looking forward to it. Thanks.
Well once I had seen a documentary on discovery where the conclude that it's the smell that attracts the opposite sex not fragrance though that actually sounds weird back then .
For the excitement they took the case study of some of the oldest lovebirds of old times,and explains the law of attraction which cover how a human feel safe in perticular environment due to presence of loved once.& How this feeling can't be regenarated when someone else is there.
I think same laws apply for both the sexes.if one is better in somthing other one is also the master of a field too.and with their mutual concensus made their life better for eachother.
It sound like crypto demand & supply though.😁😁
Probably, but the study was on women. I'd like to see a new experiment on men and why not another twist, clothes worn by a boy/girlfriend and the mothers of the participants. That would certainly be interesting, although I think the results would come out more or less the same.
Thank you so much for reading and leaving a comment!
🤞 your post already suggest women outcome in smelling compare to to men.may be tasting the food prepared by their loved ones would be an exciting option.cause men's sense of tasting is quite good.
At once amazing but not too much ... The smell of a loved one must certainly somewhere in itself trigger a feeling of well-being ... A little like the baby feels safe with his blanket ^^
When I was reading the article I thought so too! Just like a baby smells the mother and comforts themselves, smelling your partner provides a sense of security.
Thanks for reading once again @marie2018! :)
Even though making people smell a shirt may sound stupid the idea behind as you mentioned too is pretty clever and shows that the smell of a familiar person can help us lower our stress levels. I don't know if that works with shoes :P Also i have seen the perfume movie, it was quite good and the ending epic!
Shoes?! Ahm... I think would cause the opposite result :P
As for the movie, yeah, it was sick but epic, like you said!