It's well known that stimuli from all of our senses can be
incorporated into our dreams. For example, it's common to hear that a
ringing telephone, for example, causes someone still sleeping to dream
of a buzzer or siren.
Freud has a whole section on this (Chapter 1, section C, subsection 1:
"External sensory stimuli") in his "The Interpretation of Dreams":
"...a strong light may fall upon the eyes, a noise may be heard, or an
odour may irritate the mucous membranes of the nose. In our
unintentional movements during sleep we may lay bare parts of the
body, and thus expose them to a sensation of cold, or by a change of
position we may excite sensations of pressure and touch. A mosquito
may bite us, or a slight nocturnal mischance may simultaneously attack
more than one sense-organ. Observers have called attention to a whole
series of dreams in which the stimulus ascertained on waking and some
part of the dream-content corresponded to such a degree that the
stimulus could be recognized as the source of the dream."
"3. Eau de Cologne was held to his nostrils. He found himself in
Cairo, in the shop of Johann Maria Farina. This was followed by
fantastic adventures which he was not able to recall." (Farina was a
cologne manufacturer.)
(transcribed at http://www.psywww.com/books/interp/toc.htm , click on
the "Chapter I" link and scroll down)
In fact, there is a commercial product that leverages this phenomenon,
the Lucidity Institute's NovaDreamer. (
http://www.lucidity.com/novadreamer.html ) When you enter REM sleep,
the NovaDreamer can flash red lights or make a beeping sound to alert
you that you're dreaming without waking you up. The idea is that this
signal is then incorporated into your dreams ("I'm surrounded by the
popping of flash bulbs with afterimages of orange circles...") and you
recognize this cue to "become lucid".
If you are looking for recent evidence in the literature, I suspect
that the following article will be of use to you. Ask your local
university library if you need assistance in locating it:
TROTTER K, DALLAS K, VERDONE P
OLFACTORY STIMULI AND THEIR EFFECTS ON REM DREAMS
PSYCHIAT J U OTTAWA 13 (2): 94-96 JUN 1988
Search terms: dream stimuli, dream stimuli freud |
