Diffusing perfume in your bedroom before going to sleep would be good for fighting dementia, a degenerative disease.
- Diffusing perfume before going to bed in your bedroom would be beneficial for memory and to fight against dementia.
- In six months, participants increased their cognitive performance by 226%.
- 10 million new cases of dementia are reported every year worldwide according to Inserm.
Lavender, orange, lemon, rosemary, fir… There is a wide variety of essential oil fragrances. Some diffuse them in their interior to take advantage of their relaxing, soothing properties, and others simply to take advantage of their pleasant smell. But, even in the latter case, it could be beneficial.
Perfume at night to fight dementia
According to a new study published in the journal Frontiers in Neurosciencethe smell of a perfume would be very good for the memory and would make it possible to fight against dementia, especially when this one is diffused in the bedroom before sleeping.
To achieve this result, researchers from the University of California followed a group of 43 people, men and women, aged 60 to 85. They were divided into two groups of approximately the same number of participants. In the first, they received natural oils of different scents (rose, orange, eucalyptus, lemon, rosemary, lavender, peppermint). In the second, they only had simulacra of perfume, which therefore did not have the same properties.
Cognitive performance increased by 226%
For six months, participants in both groups diffused their natural oils or perfume mockups in their bedrooms before going to bed. At the same time, they took neurological tests – to assess their memory, concentration, verbal learning, etc. – and medical imaging examinations of their brain.
Result: the cognitive performance of the participants in the first group increased by 226% and had significant anatomical changes in the areas of the brain related to memory.
“The olfactory sense has the particularity of being directly connected to the brain’s memory circuits”, explains neurobiologist Michael Yassa, co-author of the study, in a communicated. The researchers therefore believe that diffusing perfume before going to bed in the bedroom would be beneficial for the brain, memory, cognitive performance and would help fight against dementia. According to’National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm), nearly 10 million new cases of dementia are reported each year worldwide.
