Why do you stop smelling fragrances after a while e.g. room fresheners after you’ve been in the same room

Question

For example you open a new air freshener and you smell it and it lasts for a few days but does your nose ‘get used’ to the fragrance and you stop smelling it?

In: 22

Answer 1

In general, none of your senses detect *things*. Instead, they detect *changes* in things. That’s why a pool feels cold at first (the temperature around your skin just changed), but then you don’t feel it any more after a while (nothing is changing anymore).

So: you smell the air freshener when you spray it (the scent in the air has changed), but if it’s constantly in the air then you’ll stop smelling it (nothing is changing).