Smells During Sleep May Shape Dreams

Howdy,

http://www.webmd.com/balance/news/20080 ... slw_100208

To avoid stinky bedroom smells, consider this:

https://www.cpap.com/productSearch.php?query=pursleep

Johnny

.

well that does it!

I'm kicking my dog Sir Farts-a-lot outta bed, no wonder my dreams have been so bad

I used to get my best sleep & dreams when I would be at my cottage... which was located about 500 miles south of James Bay in northern Quebec. 10 mile ride by boat to get there after driving in, closest other cottage was 2 miles away, would get so dark some nights there was no difference with eyes open or shut, sleeping only with the sounds & smells of nature... nothing man made.

So yes I am a firm believer of the theory that your environment directly affects how you sleep... including the smell.

Now, if I was still going up there today I'd be lugging "the machine" with me along with an Optima battery.

This is one of those highly scientific topics where intuition has just been nagging me unmercifully. Intuitively I suspect there are far greater benefits to aroma therapy than sleep science has yet managed to sink its methodological teeth.

I'm with SWS.....the surface has not been scratched yet......

I've been an incense user for at least 40 years, and since "discovering" pursleep have not been without, save a few nights on the road when I thought I hadn't packed it.....I believe that aroma therapy has played a very positive part in my xPAP therapy!!

I'm not sure about the dream issue as I haven't remembered dreams in a lot of years.....

And I'm still a habitual incense burner........

cheers
goose

You can guess what my favorite dreams are about.* Which scent will induce them?







*Sex

mth712 wrote:Wow - No wonder I have so many nightmares considering the huge increase in smelly flatulance I have experience on CPAP/APAP .

Snoredog wrote:well that does it!

I'm kicking my dog Sir Farts-a-lot outta bed, no wonder my dreams have been so bad

Ain't goin' there rooster!!!!

cheers
goose

Rooster, we were talking about aroma therapy. Not illicit... uh em.... "massage therapy" down at the adult bookstore just off the interstate.

Of course, Bret may be willing to augment his PurSleep line of fragrances with a much racier aromatic line called ImPureSleep. Then again, Snoredog's pooch is rumored to be in contract negotiations for a designer fragrance called YurNotSleepin'...

-SWS wrote:This is one of those highly scientific topics where intuition has just been nagging me unmercifully. Intuitively I suspect there are far greater benefits to aroma therapy than sleep science has yet managed to sink its methodological teeth.

Me, too! Fancy that. I've learned that the sense of smell is fundamentally different from all others for several reasons. For one thing, it's a chemical sense, meaning that the smell molecules physically connect with the nerve endings in the sinus (like puzzle pieces), triggering nerve cells to fire. It's the combination of nerves firing that provide the scent sensation. Any given smell is usually made of combinations of hundreds or thousands of different aromatic molecules. Also, the olfactory neurons are litterally only one cell long (there are NO synapses). On top of that, they connect directly to the limbic system in the brain. Smell sensory information is the only sense that is not processed through the brain stem--it's a direct link to the emotional centers of the brain.

Another cool thing is how sensitive our noses really are, whether we're conscious of it or not. We credit animals with a good sense of smell but ours isn't so bad, etiher. And if you hook people up to a functional MRI and have them smell extremely low levels of, say, styrene or vinyl chloride, certain areas of the brain will be stimulated even if the person is not consciously aware of the presence of an odor. These things are chemosensory irritants. At the same time, even very low levels of other aromatics (such as lavender etc.) also result in stimulation of the brain but, it appears, in positive ways; again, even if the patient is not aware of the presence of an odor, their brain is being stimulated in good ways.

On balance it's pretty amazing. There has been very little scientific research on olfaction. Monell and the Smell and Taste Research Foundation in Chicago are about it when it comes to research.

SleepGuy wrote:

-SWS wrote:This is one of those highly scientific topics where intuition has just been nagging me unmercifully. Intuitively I suspect there are far greater benefits to aroma therapy than sleep science has yet managed to sink its methodological teeth.

Me, too! Fancy that...

Not the least bit surprised to hear that. The old timers know how you initially became involved with aroma therapy for sleep: it essentially saved your CPAP therapy. Literally.

A couple random thoughts I have on the topic. Sleep-related aroma therapy is bound to be highly unique from one person to the next. That means finding the right aroma(s) and at the right fragrance intensities should require some "fine tuning". Regardless, aroma therapy is very likely not going to appeal to everyone. In my own way of analyzing some unique combination of psychological and physiologic (or "biomechanistic") factors should theoretically come into play regarding an attraction or aversion for any given aroma.

One possibly relevant analogy that comes to mind is the non-universal response that humans receive from pets. There are plenty of respected studies showing psychological benefits very commonly yielded by pets. Affection and touch are two factors that may yield reduced levels of stress and perhaps improve longevity. And yet pets are clearly not beneficial for everyone for an entire variety reasons. We probably all know some people who find pets unenjoyable.

Admittedly the pet analogy is probably based more heavily in an aversive behavioral or psychological response than in physiology, with the obvious exception of aversion that is based on an autoimmune response. Comparatively, I suspect affinity or aversion for any aroma may be a bit more based in "biomechanistic" factors---with perhaps some of those biomechanistic factors even being epigenetically influenced. Regardless, I personally happen to think that medicine in future generations may spawn "sleep psychology" as a dedicated sub-discipline. Like Bret and Goose, I suspect that aroma therapy is bound to assume a more prominent role in medicine's future. I also happen to think that our most primal defensive emotions such as anxiety or fear have evolutionary origins in autonomic reflexology. Quite possibly the emergence of high-order cognition (advanced decision making and perhaps even highly adaptive personality based on social survival) owes its very genesis to the lower-order problem solving neural circuits of autonomic physiology. Anyway, our species is most vulnerable during sleep, especially in the extremely harsh environment from which many selective survival-based human traits theoretically evolved. Reflexology and psychology both clearly have basis in both environmental and social survival. And thus the psychology of sleep warrants significantly more research than it presently receives IMO.

I would be curious to know if any of the PurSleep fans have managed to trace their favorite aromas to past positive experiences or perhaps certain formerly favorable phases in life. So if you don't mind sharing, what's your favorite aroma and why?

. . . what's your favorite aroma . . . ?

Chanel No. 5.

. . . and why?

Ask rooster.

Reminds me of my father's sagely advice: "If you want to learn the finer aspects of sex be sure to ask the smartest cock in the hen house."




Three cheers for
one smart Rooster

Bret, being a FINE, UPSTANDING, MORAL AND RELIGIOUS GUY, will not be creating "ImPure Sleep Scents" anytime soon.

However, if you want a pair of my used panties, send $20 via PayPal to PantiesRus@impuresleep.com.

For the first 20 responders ONLY, I will send you, absolutely free!, a real live Koala bear! Just pay separate shipping and handling!

Or just spray your girlfriend's perfume on your pillow, like my ex used to. I actually caught him sneaking my perfume bottle out of my bag one day. I was kinda freaked out, until he told me what he was doing with it.

LOL,
Babs