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CAN USING AROMATHERAPY OILS EVERY NIGHT HELP IMPROVE MEMORY?


By Clarissa Brincat on August 12, 2023 — Fact checked by Ferdinand Lali, Ph.D.
Share on PinterestScientists have found that scent exposure may help improve
memory in some older adults. elenaleonova/Getty Images
 * Being regularly exposed to multiple scents—or olfactory enrichment—has shown
   promise in enhancing cognitive abilities in older adults.
 * However, not all studies have yielded consistent results.
 * A new study found that using aromatherapy essential oils such as lavender and
   rose nightly boosted word recall by 226% and improved the functioning of a
   key brain pathway that plays a role in learning and memory.
 * These findings suggest that olfactory enrichment may be a low cost approach
   to reduce neurological impairment in older adults.



In the United States, cognitive decline, which is characterized by confusion or
memory loss, is estimated to affect 11.1%Trusted Source of the population, or
one in nine adults.

Previous research has shown that cognitive decline is accompanied or even
preceded by loss of sense of smell in various neurological disorders, including
Alzheimer’s diseaseTrusted Source, dementia, and Parkinson’s diseaseTrusted
Source.

Some research indicates that regular exposure to multiple scents or odorants — a
practice known as olfactory enrichment — can have beneficial effects on
cognitive abilities in older adults.

In a new clinical study, researchers at the University of California, Irvine,
examined if a nightly aromatherapy regimen for six months could improve
cognitive skills in older adults.

They observed significant improvements in word list recall as well as improved
functioning in the part of the brain known as the left uncinate fasciculus after
olfactory enrichment with aromatherapy oils.

The study received funding from Procter & Gamble.

The findings were published in Frontiers in Neuroscience.


7 DIFFERENT AROMATHERAPY SCENTS

For the study, the researchers recruited 43 participants, ages 60–85 years, who
were in good general health with healthy cognition.

The participants were randomly assigned to two groups. The experimental group,
made up of 20 individuals, was exposed to essential oils nightly. Meanwhile, the
control group, made up of 23 participants, was exposed to trace amounts.

For six months, the participants were exposed to either a higher or lower
concentration of essential oils nightly for two hours as they were going to
sleep, using a nebulizing fragrance diffuser.

The diffuser rotated through seven different scents from The Essential Oil
Company (Portland, Oregon), one for each day of the week: rose, orange,
eucalyptus, lemon, peppermint, rosemary, and lavender.

All participants underwent a set of assessments at study entry (baseline) and
after the 6-month intervention:

 * cognitive assessments, including a pattern separation test that assesses a
   person’s ability to distinguish between 2 similar stimuli
 * questionnaires on depression and quality of life
 * tests of olfactory performance
 * functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to check for changes in brain
   structures and brain structural connectivity.


NIGHTLY AROMATHERAPY IMPROVES MEMORY IN SOME

They found that, compared to the control group, participants in the
olfactory-enrichment group displayed a 226% improvement in their performance on
the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test—a word list recall test used to assess
verbal learning and memory.

Additionally, they observed improved functioning in the left uncinate
fasciculus, as assessed by mean diffusivity — the average water diffusion rate
within brain tissue.

The uncinate fasciculus is a brain pathway that plays a crucial role in learning
and memoryTrusted Source and deterioratesTrusted Source with age and Alzheimer’s
disease.

The researchers concluded that minimal olfactory enrichment using an odorant
diffuser at night significantly improves verbal memory and the integrity of a
specific brain pathway.

“It therefore may be appropriate to begin envisioning olfactory enrichment as a
low cost public health program to reduce neurological risk in older adults,” the
authors write in the study paper.


DO SCENTS BOOST MEMORY?

For example, in a 2018 studyTrusted Source, adults who experienced olfactory
enrichment with four essential-oil odorants twice a day for five months had
significantly improved olfactory function and verbal function, and decreased
depression symptoms compared to controls who solved daily Sudoku puzzles
instead.

Not all olfactory enrichment studies have produced the desired results, however.
A 2022 studyTrusted Source did not find memory improvement in older adults with
mild cognitive impairment after brief exposures to multiple odorants twice each
day for four months.


HOW AROMATHERAPY MAY INFLUENCE THE BRAIN

Dr. Michael Leon, professor emeritus of neurobiology and behavior at the
University of California Irvine, and senior author on this study, explained to
Medical News Today that “[i]t was known that the loss of olfactory stimulation
causes the memory centers of the brain to deteriorate and it turns out that
increasing odor stimulation improves the memory centers of the brain along with
memory.”

“The olfactory sense is the only sense that has direct access to the memory
centers of the brain and [aromatherapy] is a good way to stimulate those centers
with little effort,” he added.

Dr. Mark Moss, head of the Department of Psychology at Northumbria University in
the United Kingdom, who was not involved in the study, meanwhile, noted that “in
the context of the current study, the rotation of aromas on a nightly basis
provides environmental enrichment.“

> “Olfactory enrichment has been shown to impact on human brain structure and to
> impact on aspects of memory when presented during daytime studies.”
> — Dr. Michael Leon

THE STUDY’S STRENGTHS AND LIMITATIONS

Dr. Moss said the study had a number of strengths.

“First, the intervention went on for six months, so this gives a good assessment
of the long-term use of the aromas. The use of brain imaging can help in
demonstrating how any behavioral effects might be mediated at the level of brain
structure and function,“ he told MNT.

“A range of cognitive tests were employed to assess different cognitive
functions; memory, working memory, attention switching, and planning. The use of
a range of essential oils that were rotated on a daily basis over a week is a
good element to the study to ensure environmental enrichment,” he continued.

However, the reliability of the findings is limited by the small number of
participants who contributed data for the cognitive analyses. Due to the
COVID-19 pandemic, many participants were unable or unwilling to return to the
university campus for cognitive assessments at the end of the 6-month
intervention.

This reduced the cognitive assessment dataset to a total of 23, 12 of whom
experienced olfactory enrichment and 11 who were in the control group.

Dr. Aimee Spector, professor of old age clinical psychology at University
College London in the U.K., who was not involved in the study, also commented
that the sample size was very small and “a fully powered trial is needed to make
any firm conclusions.”

The fact that none of the participants had cognitive impairment also meant that
“there is a limit to the likely changes in cognitive function,” she told MNT.



SHOULD I USE AROMATHERAPY OILS AT NIGHT?

“There is also likely to have been a placebo effect in that the control group
were given distilled water and would therefore have known that they were not
receiving treatment,” Dr. Spector pointed out.

Dr. Moss noted that “of the 12 cognitive measures they analyzed, only one
produced a significant difference, so although a large effect was found for that
particular variable, the potential median response over a 226% improvement may
well be overblown. It is not exactly clear what the baseline scores were as only
the change from baseline values are given.”

Overall, Dr. Moss believes that the “use of aromatherapy for a couple of hours a
night is something worth trying” as it “can help with sleep quality as well as
potentially on memory.”

However, he cautioned people not to expect “a definite improvement,” as “even
amongst participants who received the aroma intervention in the study, only half
improved their memory after six months.”


 * Alzheimer's / Dementia
 * Neurology / Neuroscience
 * Seniors / Aging
 * Sleep / Sleep Disorders / Insomnia

Share this article


By Clarissa Brincat on August 12, 2023 — Fact checked by Ferdinand Lali, Ph.D.





LATEST NEWS

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 * Which foods may increase, and which may lower bowel cancer risk?
 * Swapping meat for plant-based foods may lower diabetes and heart disease risk
 * Vitamin B12 could boost tissue repair, help treat ulcerative colitis
 * 3 or more servings of whole grains may help slow cognitive decline


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