Trial reportScientific reports2021
A pilot study on essential oil aroma stimulation for enhancing slow-wave EEG in sleeping brain.
Trial report in Scientific reports, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
24 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 52 citations in OpenAlex.
- A Systematic Review on the Adult Alpha Brainwave Activity After Essential Oil Inhalation.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2023Pooled it
- fNIRS neuroimaging in olfactory research: A systematic literature review.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2022Pooled it
- Effects of inhaled aromatherapy on sleep quality and cognitive function in older adults: a randomised controlled trial.The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences · 2026Trial
- The immediate effects of lavender-based essential oil inhalation on subsequent polysomnography in people with poor sleep quality.Journal of the Chinese Medical Association : JCMA · 2023Trial
- EEG-Based Neurophysiological Assessment of Pharmacopoeial-Quality Essential Oils and Development of Stable Micro-Emulsion Systems for Aromatherapy Applications.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Exploring Linalool-Based Phytotherapy for Excitatory/Inhibitory Imbalance in Alzheimer's Disease: A Review of Lavender and Cannabis Therapeutic Effects on Sleep, Seizures, and Cognition.Phytotherapy research : PTR · 2026Review
- Analysis of Event-related Potential Dynamics Reveals Lavender Aroma Modulates Cognitive Flexibility: An Electroencephalography Investigation Based on Task Switching Paradigms.Journal of medical signals and sensors · 2026Article
- Effects of nighttime odor exposure and delivery methods on subjective sleep quality in healthy adults.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- The Role of Essential Oils on Sleep Quality and Other Sleep-related Issues: Evidence from Clinical Trials.Mini reviews in medicinal chemistry · 2025Review
- Comparing Effects of Aromatherapy with Five Herbs Essential Oils on PCPA-induced Insomnia Mice.Journal of microbiology and biotechnology · 2024Article
- Nature's therapeutic power: a study on the psychophysiological effects of touching ornamental grass in Chinese women.Journal of health, population, and nutrition · 2024Article
- Lavender Essential Oil Inhalation Improves Attentional Shifting and Accuracy: Evidence from Dynamic Changes of Cognitive Flexibility and Power Spectral Density of Electroencephalogram Signals.Journal of medical signals and sensors · 2024Article
- Immediate effects of passion fruit juice supplementation on working ability and attention in healthy participants.Current research in physiology · 2024Article
- The effect of cognitive-behavioral counseling with or withoutSleep and biological rhythms · 2023Article
- Effects of phytoncide on immune cells and psychological stress of gynecological cancer survivors: randomized controlled trials.Journal of exercise rehabilitation · 2023Article
- The Effects of Essential Oils on the Nervous System: A Scoping Review.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Common herbs for stress: The science and strategy of a botanical medicine approach to self-care.Journal of interprofessional education & practice · 2023Article
- Stress amelioration and anti-inflammatory potential of Shiikuwasha (Citrus depressa Hayata) essential oil, limonene, and γ-terpinene.Journal of food and drug analysis · 2022Article
- Changes in Human Electroencephalographic Activity in Response toBehavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Decoding the neural signatures of valence and arousal from portable EEG headset.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Sleep quality is important to health and life quality. Lack of sleep can lead to a variety of health issues and reduce in daytime function. Recent study by Fultz et al. also indicated that sleep is crucial to brain metabolism. Delta power in sleep EEG often indicates good sleep quality while alpha power usually indicates sleep interruptions and poor sleep quality. Essential oil has been speculated to improve sleep quality. Previous studies also suggest essential oil aroma may affect human brain activity when applied awake. However, those studies were often not blinded, which makes the effectiveness and mechanism of aroma a heavily debated topic. In this study, we aim to explore the effect of essential oil aroma on human sleep quality and sleep EEG in a single-blinded setup. The aroma was released when the participants are asleep, which kept the influence of psychological expectation to the minimum. We recruited nine young, healthy participants with regular lifestyle and no sleep problem. All participants reported better sleep quality and more daytime vigorous after exposing to lavender aroma in sleep. We also observed that upon lavender aroma releases, alpha wave in wake stage was reduced while delta wave in slow-wave sleep (SWS) was increased. Lastly, we found that lavender oil promote occurrence of SWS. Overall, our study results show that essential oil aroma can be used to promote both subjective and objective sleep quality in healthy human subjects. This makes aroma intervention a potential solution for poor sleep quality and insomnia.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.