With a new school year starting, children, particularly high school and college students, will begin experiencing stress from academic, social and time management pressures. Luckily, researchers in Korea have discovered a highly effective technique to reduce student stress: scent.
Female high school students were exposed to bergamot essential oil or a scentless carrier oil during school. At the end of the day, the students were asked about their stress and anxiety and researcher physical markers of stress were measured. These include systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), pulse rate (PR), cortisol and IgA.
Amazing results
After being exposed to the bergamot oil, reported stress and anxiety levels fell significantly, as did every physical stress marker. Stress level dropped by 19.8% and anxiety by 23.5%. Systolic blood pressure went down from a mean of 110.28 to a mean of 97.67 and pulse rate went down 79.94 to 74.72.
In contrast, the control group that was only exposed to the placebo had increased levels of stress (+20.5%) and anxiety (+7.0%) by the end of the day. All physical markers also showed increased levels of stress.
The results show that the pleasant scent not only neutralized the added stress from school, but actually reduced it compared to before-school levels.
Educational uses
Individual students can manage stress with personal scents like perfume, an aroma stone or aroma jewelry that has an absorbent pad for fragrance oil.
High schools, technical schools and colleges can use classroom scenting to reduce student stress and anxiety. When students are relaxed, they will be more focused and ready to learn.
To find scents that reduce stress and how to use scent at your school, contact Air Esscentials.