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Chemosensory Perception 
December 2014, Volume 7, Issue 3–4, pp 140–146 | Cite as

Olfactory Stimulation During Sleep Can Reactivate Odor-Associated Images




Research has indicated that olfactory stimuli presented during sleep might reactivate memories that are associated with this odor. The present study is the first to examine whether learned associations between odor and images can be reactivated during sleep.


Sixteen healthy, normosmic volunteers underwent a balanced learning task in which pictures of rural scenes and pictures of city scenes were associated with hydrogen sulfide (smell of rotten eggs) or phenyl ethyl alcohol (smell of roses) in the evening in a crossover design. During the subsequent night, they were stimulated with olfactory stimuli (hydrogen sulfide, phenyl ethyl alcohol, and neutral) during REM periods. Participants were awakened 1 min after the stimulation and dream reports were elicited.


The olfactory congruent stimuli significantly increased the probability of dreams about rural scenes, whereas the same effect was not found for city scenes.


As these findings support the hypothesis of reactivation during sleep, it would be very interesting to study the effect of dreams as a tool to measure reactivation of task material on sleep-dependent memory consolidation.


Olfactory stimulation Dream content Sleep-dependent memory consolidation


Compliance with Ethics Requirements


Michael Schredl declares that he has no conflict of interest.

Leonie Hoffmann declares that she has no conflict of interest.

J. Ulrich Sommer declares that he has no conflict of interest.

Boris A. Stuck declares that he has no conflict of interest.







Schredl, M., Hoffmann, L., Sommer, J.U. et al. Chem. Percept. (2014) 7: 140. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12078-014-9173-4



