Will certain odors you smell at night while sleeping aid in memory retention?
German scientists have been studying the link between odors you smell at night while asleep may aid in memory retention. This study involved the use of students as guinea pigs, and a version of a computer memory game that involves matching similar pairs of cards.
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 the odor during the lighter dream stage of sleep known as REM sleep saw no memory boost.
The conclusions so far are that linking odor to memory causes more of an emotional memory response, and not necessarily an aid to learning retention memories.
For more information, go to:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070309/ap_on_he_me/rosy_memories;_ylt=AsLsBNy5ULSQUOrN08mTvBvVJRIF
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