Firefighters claim smell senses don't work while asleep; the reason for smoke detectors. True or false?

Answer 1

False -- Your brain and nerves never shut off.

Stop - right now - can you feel your left foot touch the floor?

Well now that I've pointed it out, you can, but I bet you didn't notice it before. Your brain receives lots and lots of input every second from nerves all over you body, including sight, sound and smell. You have filters or gates that screen out those that aren't important right now. But you can selectively pay attention to them.

These filters get tighter as you sleep, the deeper into sleep you go. Drugs, alcohol and extreme fatigue make it even harder to notice sensations in sleep. Everyone sets these differently

So a quiet alarm wakes me up, so does my pager - the neighbors screaming kid doesn't. The kid wakes my wife but my pager doesn't. When she is really tired, even the kid doesn't.

Smells are not usually seen as a threat to our brain so yes, your smell senses work, yes they get to the brain, but no, they don't wake you up usually.

Maybe if it is chocolate cake, or if you are really hungry...

Answer 2

I'm saying false. I can smell in my sleep. For instance when I set my bread machine to bake for fresh bread in the morning I wake up smelling it cook, also had a fire a couple houses down and woke up to the smell.

Very close friends are firefighters and have never heard this claim. Smoke detectors usually pick up the faintest type of smoke before it fills the house, thus warning people before it's to late.

Answer 3

False.

Also, I have never heard a firefighter claim this.

A smoke detector in the right place can detect a fire before a sleeping person because smoke rises with heat and detection at ceiling level can happen much sooner than smoke that is so thick it is down to the level of a sleeping person.

A sleeping person will take much longer to react to outside stimulus like the smell of smoke than a smoke detector.

Answer 4

I don't know about making the claim, but of the five senses, the sense of smell is the last sense to "wake up". This is why so many people who don't have smoke detectors, or don't properly maintain them succumb to smoke inhalation in a structure fire.

Answer 5

True! According to a report of Brown University,sounds will usually disturb sleep,but scents not. In deeper sleep levels no one can smell pyridine(the scents of fire).
Why is true?The study suggests a ''significant alteration of perceptual as a function of sleep'' Olfactory perception,or the sense of smell appears to be practically nonexistent during deep sleep.

Answer 6

that not true. But you could be very sound asleep and not wake up if you didn't have the smoke detectors.

Answer 7

wow interesting, I guess they might be right as I don't smell anything once I'm sleep. or wait a minute I do wake up when I smell nice food. I'm confused :0)

Answer 8

Definitely True.

Answer 9

False.