Fragrant Memories
If you need motivation to beautify your yard with roses, a recent study in the journal Science should help get you started. The study tested the memory of groups of medical students by having them play a version of Concentration where they memorized the location of pairs of playing cards on a computer screen. At the end of the game the students were given a burst of rose scent through masks they wore, and then they went to sleep about half an hour later.
While in REM sleep, the students were given blasts of rose fragrance
which did not wake them and they did not remember receiving when they did awake. Their scores averaged 97% when they played after receiving the rose fragrance in their sleep as opposed to their average of 86% when they had not received the rose fragrance.
The moral? Plant roses in your yard, especially outside your bedroom window. Their beauty and lovely fragrance will not only please you during the day but they may help enhance your memory while you sleep!
