there's an article recently published in science going around the lab with some very interesting findings on sleep and memory consolidation. these guys made their subjects play a matching game with a 6x5 array of cards before they went to bed (turn over pairs of cards to try and find matching ones), and asked them to memorize the positions of the cards for the following day. while they were doing this, they squirted a rose-scented aerosol at them to form a stimulus-context association, and then put them to bed. the experimental group got rose aerosol puffed at them during periods of slow-wave sleep (the deepest kind), while various control groups got no puffing during the task, no puffing during their sleep, puffing during REM and so forth. the group that was puffed at during SWS performed significantly better than all the controls (and i would say, looking at the numbers, that they were practically as well as statistically significant).

now, while this is very cool from a scientific standpoint, just think about the real-world implications. the task isn't so far removed from things you actually need to do -- i would say if you were comparing performance on it to, say, studying for an exam, you'd find that it's a pretty valid instrument. and think how easy it would be for an engineer to rig up something for make use if this information at home. all you need is a simple 8-electrode eeg system hooked up to a custom-made glade air-freshener doodad so that it spritzes the scent of your choice in your face every time it sees delta waves. then, inhale huge amounts of that scent while you're studying, and go to bed. instant memory boost! the marketing potential is staggering. why don't i ever come up with experiments like that? i want to retire at 35 too.