Next time you’re feeling totally overwhelmed and stressed, science suggests there could be a slightly gross but instantaneous solution: sniff one of your partner’s shirts.
Yep, according to researchers at the University of British Columbia, you might want to make a pilgrimage to the wash basket next time you need to chill out.
A new study, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, found that smelling a romantic partner’s scent can actually help lower stress levels.
And, while the study showed women feel calmer after smelling their other half, sniffing a stranger’s odour actually raises our levels of the stress hormone cortisol.
Is that why we get so hectic on public transport?
‘Many people wear their partner’s shirt or sleep on their partner’s side of the bed when their partner is away, but may not realise why they engage in these behaviours,’ said lead author Marlise Hofer.
‘Our findings suggest that a partner’s scent alone, even without their physical presence, can be a powerful tool to help reduce stress.’
To work this out, researchers got the men in 96 heterosexual couples to wear a clean T-shirt for 24 hours without putting deodorant or scented products on. They were also told not to smoke and to avoid certain foods.
The women in the study were then randomly assigned a T-shirt to smell: one that was either unworn, or worn by their partner or a stranger. Scientists then gave them a stress test and measured the levels of cortisol in their saliva.
And it turned out that those who had smelt their partner’s shirt were less stressed before before and after the test. Interestingly enough, the effect was even more pronounced when the women correctly guessed that they were smelling their partner.
Meanwhile, those who sniffed a stranger’s shirt had much higher cortisol levels throughout.
Anyway, it might be a little unconventional, but you know what to do next time you need to chill out…
