Fragrances improve learning during sleep
Researchers at the Medical Center - University of Freiburg show that fragrances can easily help to better retain newly learned information during sleep / Experiment with school classes confirms and simplifies highly regarded study
Effortless learning during sleep is everyone's dream. The fact that odors increase learning success when they are presented during learning and later again during sleep was first demonstrated a few years ago in elaborate studies in the sleep laboratory. Now, researchers at the Medical Center - University of Freiburg, the Freiburg Institute for Frontier Areas of Psychology and Mental Hygiene (IGPP) and the Faculty of Biology at the University of Freiburg have shown that this effect can be achieved very simply. For the study, pupils in two school classes learned English vocabulary - with and without scented sticks during the learning phase and at night. The students remembered the vocabulary significantly better with the scent stimulus. The study, which was carried out by a student teacher as part of her final thesis, was published on January 27, 2020 in the Nature Group's open access journal Scientific Reports.
"We were able to show that the supportive effect of scents works very reliably in everyday life and can be used in a targeted manner," says study leader PD Dr. Jürgen Kornmeier, Head of the Perception and Cognition Research Group at the Freiburg IGPP and scientist at the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at the Medical Center - University of Freiburg.
Rose scent during learning and sleep
For the study, first author and student teacher Franziska Neumann carried out several experiments with 54 pupils from two 6th grade classes at a school on Lake Constance. The young test subjects were asked to place rose-scented sticks on their desks at home while learning English vocabulary and on their bedside tables at night. In another experiment, they also placed the scented sticks on the table next to them during a vocabulary test at school. This was followed by an English test the next day. The results were compared with test results in which no fragrance sticks were used during one or more phases.
"The pupils showed significantly greater learning success when the scented sticks were used during both the learning and sleeping phases," says Neumann. The results also indicate that the additional use of the scented sticks during the vocabulary test promotes recall.
Findings are suitable for everyday use
"It was particularly impressive that the scent also works when it is present throughout the night," says Kornmeier. "This makes the findings suitable for everyday use." Previous studies had always assumed that the scent should only be present during a particularly sensitive sleep phase. However, as this sleep phase can only be determined by a complex measurement of brain activity using an electroencephalogram (EEG) in a sleep laboratory, the findings were not yet suitable for everyday use. "Our study shows that we can make learning easier while we sleep. And who would have thought that our nose could play a major role in this," says Kornmeier.
Original title of the study: How odor cues help to optimize learning during sleep in a real life-setting
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-57613-7
Link to the study: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-57613-7
Contact:
PD Dr. Jürgen Kornmeier
Institute for Frontier Areas of Psychology and Psychohygiene (IGPP)
and
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy
Medical Center - University of Freiburg
Phone: 0761 207-2121
juergen.kornmeier@uni-freiburg.de
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