The Nose Knows
Smell, Sleep & Memory - Linked Doctors have long advised that a good night's sleep is important for memory -- but researchers now say a familiar scent wafting in the bedroom might help sometimes, too. The caveat: In the study, being published Friday in the journal Science, it only worked for some kinds of memories and during one stage of sleep, meaning it's not the answer for people hunting a quick memory boost. German scientists used medical students as their guinea pigs, having them play a computer version of a common memory game: They turned over pairs of cards to find each one's match. Some played in a rose-scented room. Later that night, while they were in a deep stage of sleep known as slow-wave sleep, researchers gave them another whiff of roses. The next day, the rose-scented sleepers remembered the locations of those cards better than people who didn't get a whiff -- they answered correctly 97 percent of the time compared with 86 percent. People exposed to ...