This Everyday Smell May Have An Unexpected Effect On Your Brain
There's something about the smell of coffee that makes a morning feel officially underway.
You catch the aroma while it's brewing, take that first deep inhale, and suddenly you're a little more awake. You haven't even taken a sip yet. That got researchers wondering whether coffee's aroma might do something on its own.
In recent research1, they examined what happened to people's mood and brain activity after five minutes of smelling freshly brewed coffee, without drinking any.
About the study
Smell has a close connection with brain regions involved in emotion and memory, making aroma an interesting thing to study separately from caffeine.
Researchers recruited 20 healthy adults in their 20s and had them smell freshly brewed coffee for five minutes.
Before and after, participants completed a mood questionnaire measuring things like fatigue, tension, anxiety, confusion, and depressive feelings.
Researchers also used a wearable EEG headband to measure brain activity and monitored heart rate, giving them a look at both subjective mood and measurable changes in the brain and body.
Five minutes of coffee aroma was linked to a mood shift
After smelling the coffee, participants reported less overall mood disturbance, including lower levels of fatigue, tension and anxiety, confusion, and depressive feelings.
Their feelings of energy and alertness didn't change significantly.
The EEG readings also showed an increase in a measure of brain activity associated with relaxation. Heart rate and other heart-rate measures, however, didn't change significantly.
Interestingly, the changes in mood and brain activity weren't clearly linked from person to person. So, the researchers can't say that the brain changes caused the mood changes.
Why smell might affect the brain so quickly
Ever smelled something and instantly been reminded of a person or place?
That's partly because smell has a particularly close connection with brain regions involved in emotion and memory. A scent can trigger a response before you've consciously processed what you're smelling.
That may help explain the changes seen here, but the study can't tell us exactly why coffee aroma affected participants' mood and brain activity.
The study also had some important limitations. It included only 20 young adults and had no control group.
Without a comparison group, researchers can't tell whether the changes came specifically from the coffee aroma or whether simply sitting quietly for five minutes contributed.
Give your coffee aroma a little more attention
This isn't evidence that smelling coffee can treat anxiety, stress, or low mood. But if you already enjoy coffee, you can easily turn the aroma into a small sensory pause:
- Pause before your first sip: Give yourself a few seconds to notice the smell while your coffee is still hot.
- Take a few slow breaths: Breathe normally and pay attention to the aroma rather than rushing into the rest of your morning.
- Actually notice what you smell: See if you can pick up different notes in the coffee instead of treating the aroma as background noise.
- Try it with another scent: If you don't drink coffee, use another pleasant everyday smell as a reason to pause, whether that's tea, fresh citrus, or something else you enjoy.
None of this needs to become a formal mindfulness practice. The point is simply to give yourself a brief sensory break during a routine you already have.
RELATED READ: This Is The Best Type Of Coffee For Longevity
The takeaway
Five minutes of smelling freshly brewed coffee was linked to lower levels of several negative moods and changes in relaxation-related brain activity.
It's an early finding from a very small study, but it gives your morning brew one more reason to savor the smell.
