Scented slumber aids memory

Just as the smell of watermelon might trigger a recollection of a childhood picnic, the release of odors during deep sleep can help people form new memories, a new study found.

Students who received bursts of rose-scented air while they played a memory game and then received similar bursts of smell during deep sleep outperformed others by 15% when they replicated the exercise the following day, according to a study published last week in the journal Science.

At night, a person’s experiences during the day are replayed and cataloged in the hippocampus area of the brain and then communicated to the neocortex region, where conscious memories are stored, said Jan Born, a neuroscientist at the University of Lubeck, Germany, and one of the study’s authors.

Born said that the study’s findings may help scientists develop memory treatments that target the sleep cycle.