Presentation of familiar odor induces negative dream emotions during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep in healthy adolescents

Odor presentation is a crucial tool in the experimental investigation of dreaming since odors rarely cause arousal, and are processed in the brain during sleep. Our previous study demonstrated that the presentation of a preferred odor during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep-induced negative dream emotions. However, preference and familiarity of an odor are known to be strongly related to each other in olfactory perception. Consequently, the above result might have been due to the confounding effects of familiarity. Therefore, the present study was designed to clarify the effects of an individual's degree of familiarity with an odor on negative emotions experienced when dreaming. The airflow with phenylethyl alcohol (PEA: rose-like smell) was presented as a stimulus of experimental condition, and odorless airflow was presented as the control. Participants who were familiar (n = 7) and unfamiliar (n = 7) with the odor of PEA experienced both conditions during REM sleep in the second and later sleep cycle. Then, they were awakened, and they rated the characteristics of their dream using a questionnaire. Participants who were familiar with the odor of PEA rated their dreams more negatively in the experimental condition relative to the control condition. It is concluded based on these results that a familiar odor may induce negative emotion in dreams, possibly because familiar odors tend to be perceived more strongly, and the olfactory pathway has direct connections to the amygdala, which is primarily involved in processing negative emotions. •Participants who were familiar to the odor reported more emotionally negative dreams during the odor presentation.•The effect was found only in the participants who were familiar to the odor, because they may have perceived it as stronger.•Induced negative dream may be explained by the direct path of the olfactory bulb to the amygdala processing negative emotion.