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The Scent of a Good Night’s Sleep : Olfactory Cues of a Romantic Partner Improve Sleep Efficiency Hofer, Marlise; Chen, Frances S.
Abstract
Almost nothing is known about whether exposure to the scent of loved ones influences sleep. In the current study, 155 participants spent 2 nights with their partner’s scent and 2 nights with a control scent (in random order). Sleep was measured in two ways: sleep efficiency (via actigraphy) and perceived sleep quality (via self-report). Sleep efficiency was higher when participants were exposed to their partner’s scent. This increase occurred regardless of participants’ beliefs about the origin of the scent. Perceived sleep quality was higher when participants believed that they were smelling their partner’s scent. Exposure to a partner’s scent led sleep efficiency to increase by more than 2% on average, an improvement similar in magnitude to the effect of melatonin on sleep. The current work speaks to the critical role of olfaction in communication and reveals that social scents can impact sleep.
Item Metadata
Title |
The Scent of a Good Night’s Sleep : Olfactory Cues of a Romantic Partner Improve Sleep Efficiency
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Creator | |
Publisher |
Psychological Science
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Date Issued |
2020-03-12
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Description |
Almost nothing is known about whether exposure to the scent of loved ones influences sleep.
In the current study, 155 participants spent 2 nights with their partner’s scent and 2 nights with
a control scent (in random order). Sleep was measured in two ways: sleep efficiency (via
actigraphy) and perceived sleep quality (via self-report). Sleep efficiency was higher when
participants were exposed to their partner’s scent. This increase occurred regardless of
participants’ beliefs about the origin of the scent. Perceived sleep quality was higher when
participants believed that they were smelling their partner’s scent. Exposure to a partner’s
scent led sleep efficiency to increase by more than 2% on average, an improvement similar in
magnitude to the effect of melatonin on sleep. The current work speaks to the critical role of
olfaction in communication and reveals that social scents can impact sleep.
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Subject | |
Genre | |
Type | |
Language |
eng
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Date Available |
2021-10-26
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Provider |
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
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Rights |
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
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DOI |
10.14288/1.0402632
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URI | |
Affiliation | |
Citation |
Hofer, M. K., & Chen, F. S. (2020). The scent of a good night’s sleep: Olfactory cues of a romantic partner improve sleep efficiency. Psychological Science, 31, 449-459.
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Publisher DOI |
10.1177/0956797620905615
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Peer Review Status |
Reviewed
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Scholarly Level |
Faculty; Graduate
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Rights URI | |
Aggregated Source Repository |
DSpace
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Item Media
Item Citations and Data
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International