The science of scent and how it affects your life
Scent scaping is about exploring the intersection between smells and scent psychology and how we can use the power of this sense to actually impact our emotions. Our sense of smell can have a tangible impact on our day-to-day life, but not enough people are making the most of it! Here are 3 ways scent can affect our day-to-day lives.
Sleep
Who doesn't want to wake up feeling rested and ready to take on that to-do list?
Whilst many people invest in eye masks and ocean sound machines in the hopes of sweet dreams, fragrance is still overlooked, aside from in the form of pillow sprays perhaps. However, sleep and scent really do go hand in hand.
In fact, they have a bidirectional relationship: Smell impacts sleep. Sleep impacts smell. Research has highlighted that certain scents can influence how long it takes to fall asleep, sleep quality, dreams and even memory formation whilst snoozing (sleepfoundation.org).
Soothing options such as lavender and chamomile, as well as earthy, grounding smells can be a brilliant way to tap into this at bedtime.
Memory
If you’ve ever smelt something and been transported right back to a particular time, you’ve witnessed this one first hand!
Scientific research has suggested that memory and smell are linked for good reason: Because the anatomy of the brain allows olfactory signals (scent signals) to get to the limbic system incredibly quickly (verywellmind.com). The limbic system is the part of the brain responsible for regulating your emotions. So that could explain why the perfume your Mum wore when you were 8 makes you feel instantly more calm!
With this in mind, it’s possible to use smells to your advantage. For example, you could spritz the same room spray whilst preparing and then giving a presentation, to jog your memory.
Romance
As wild as it sounds, it’s possible that someone’s natural scent influences attractiveness more than their looks.
We are hard-wired to search for partners who have different gene configurations to our own. One of the ways we do this is through our nose, if you can believe it! Pheromones and MHC (a part of DNA), influence the way that we naturally smell and can have a big impact on unconscious attraction (thezeoreport.com).
This might not be one that you can totally control, but it certainly is interesting.