We have known for a while that memories are strengthened as we sleep. But why, and what can we do about it? This study looked at giving people cues during their sleep that repeated cues given during learning. The cues were puffs of a rose smell, and they worked!
Scent Activates Memory During Sleep, Study Says
Scientists studying how sleep affects memory have found that the whiff of a familiar scent can help a slumbering brain better remember things that it learned the evening before. A rose bouquet — delivered to people’s nostrils as they studied and, later, as they slept — improved their performance on a memory test by almost 15 percent.