“The idea behind nasal blindness is that the olfactory system is designed to detect changes in our environment,” says olfactory scientist and experimental psychologist Pam Dalton, PhD, MPH, who conducts research on nasal blindness and odor formation at the Monell Chemical Senses Lab in Philadelphia. “If a chemical is present for a longer period of time – and this can take a minute to five minutes to an hour – the receptors in the nose no longer react to it because they no longer provide any new information.”

“If we’ve breathed in an environment for a few minutes while smelling an odor and nothing bad happened, we don’t really need to pay any attention to that smell – so we can no longer sense it.” —Pam Dalton, PhD, MPH

Essentially, smell is one of the senses that our body uses to receive important safety information about our surroundings – that is, the system is supposed to warn us of possible dangers. “If we have breathed in an environment for a few minutes while we smelled an odor and nothing bad has happened, we no longer really have to pay attention to this odor – and can no longer perceive it,” says Dr. Dalton, “what nasal blindness at work is.” And if the intensity of the aroma does not change, we remain nose-blind in this environment.

Given that many of us still spend a lot of time at home – and perhaps more time than before the pandemic – it is very likely that we have become nasal blind to a variety of scents swirling around our rooms. “In normal times, we go in and out of our house several times a day, and there is a lot of scent dilution that only happens when the door is opened and closed,” says Dr. Dalton.

In contrast, if you stay indoors (and do things with smelly consequences), more odors can become trapped – especially in fabrics like upholstery and carpets –and so that you can become nasal blind to those trapped smells. “If you don’t have a highly functional air filter system, like one that works with carbon filters, these odors can easily be returned to your surroundings,” says Dr. Dalton.

Why certain smells remain

Not all smells are created equal, and certain flavors are more likely to settle in a room than others – making nasal blindness at home more of a problem for those long-lasting smells. “Certain scent molecules are heavier in terms of their molecular weight, so they are less likely to be broken down by ambient ozone light,” says Dr. Dalton. For example, think of the smell of sweaty feet or aged cheese, both of which are derived from short chain fatty acids that are high in molecular weight and tend to linger on. The same goes for pet odors that easily stick to surfaces, via flakes of skin, or even urine in cats with no great, well, goal.

“Other types of scent molecules are lightweight and very volatile, which means that they diffuse and escape quickly,” adds Dr. Dalton added. Fish odor molecules, for example, are small and quickly evaporate – but we are particularly sensitive to these smells, so we tend to notice them for a while, even if only a tiny fraction of the odor actually remains.

This is how you can tell whether you have become nasal blind to odors in your home

The best way to tell if you’ve become nasal blind is to invite someone into your home who isn’t afraid to share their honest opinion about whether or not they can smell something, says Dr. Dalton.

Another idea: to find out if a particular item smells, change its context if possible. For example, if you suspect that a blanket smells on your couch but you can’t smell it, move it to another room and try again. “Sometimes we get used to smells in a certain room, but if we move them to another place we can smell them again,” says Dr. Dalton. Moving the item can help you draw attention to the fact that you have become nasal blind to its smell.

It’s also worth noting that everyone processes smell a bit differently, and when we assign a value to a smell – either good, bad, or indifferent – actually can change how long we can still smell this smell before we experience nasal blindness. According to Dr. Dalton’s research is likely to make a person who thinks a smell bad smell longer than if they thought it smelled good.

In one experiment, she placed three groups of people in rooms with the same smell. She told one group that the smell was a botanical extract from a flower, another that it was a test deodorant, and the third that it was a chemical that made certain people feel uncomfortable. “Under these circumstances, the last group of people who were warned about the bad smell were those who smelled it significantly longer than those in the other groups,” says Dr. Dalton. “It’s not that your olfactory systems were working any better, it’s like that this system came up in your brain and adjusted to it better.”

How to Get Rid of Odors That Have Got You Nose Blinded:

Only because you have If you’ve got nose blind in your home, it doesn’t mean guests in your room have. Fortunately, there are ways you can get rid of potential odors in advance. “We always say the solution to pollution is dilution,” says Dr. Dalton: Open the windows, open the door and ventilate as much as possible so that odor molecules are released from surfaces and into the air. Turning on fans can also help with this if you have them handy.

Another option: use a home deodorizer – look for this term as opposed to a room fragrance that just adds a new scent to your room – which usually has starch molecules that attach to smelly compounds and make them puff out of the air, says Dr . Dalton. “Enzymatic cleaners can also break down bad smells on surfaces,” she adds, “because their active ingredients create bubbles around the smelly molecules, essentially removing the smell from the air.”

Whichever you choose (or not!), You know that once your guests settle in and start chatting about non-odor-related topics, over time they are likely to blind themselves to swirling smells as well. In fact, the beauty of nasal blindness is that everything your nose knows will eventually be forgotten.

Oh hello! You look like someone who loves free workouts, discounts on cult favorite wellness brands, and exclusive Well + Good content. Sign up for Well +, our online community of wellness insiders, and activate your rewards immediately.