The smell of roasted coffee beans can help reduce the effects of sleep deprivation stress, according to a team of scientists from South Korea, Germany and Japan. In their opinion, the mere smell of finished coffee increases the activity of certain genes in the brain, and a person gets rid of drowsiness.
Researchers whose work () will be published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, conducted experiments on rats.
The experimental animals were divided into four groups. The control group was not exposed to any influences. The rats from the stress group were forcibly not allowed to sleep for a day. Animals from the “coffee” group sniffed the smell of the beans, but were not exposed to stress. The rats in the fourth group (coffee plus stress) were required to sniff coffee after twenty-four hours of wakefulness.
Researchers have found that seventeen genes “work” in rats that inhaled the smell of coffee. At the same time, the activity of thirteen of them differed in sleep-deprived rats and in rats with “insomnia” and with the smell of coffee. In particular, the scent of coffee promoted the release of proteins that have antioxidant properties – protecting nerve cells from stress-related damage.