SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Public Mental Health
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1646592
The effects of Rosa damascene aromatherapy on mood and sleep: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Provisionally accepted
- Third People's Hospital of Huzhou, Huzhou, China
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Background and Purpose: Individuals under stress may experience a range of negative emotions and sleep disturbances. There is preliminary evidence that Rosa damascene (RD) aromatherapy is effective in improving symptoms such as negative mood and sleep. The objective of this study was to assess the effects of RD aromatherapy on anxiety, anxiety-related hemodynamic changes, depression, stress, and sleep quality, while also exploring potential moderating factors that could influence the outcome measures. Methods: Systematic review and meta-analysis of existing randomized controlled trials on RD aromatherapy in the treatment of mood and sleep. A systematic literature search was conducted across PubMed, Web of Science, EMBASE, CINAHL, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials. We identified 28 randomized controlled trials that were pooled using a random-effects meta-analysis. Results: The meta-analysis demonstrated that RD aromatherapy significantly alleviated anxiety symptoms (SMD = -1.31; 95% CI, -1.74 to -0.88; p < 0.001), reduced mean arterial pressure (MAP) (SMD = -0.33; 95% CI, -0.64 to -0.02; p = 0.038), and mitigated stress symptoms (SMD = -0.76; 95% CI, -1.07 to -0.44; p < 0.001), while also improving sleep quality (SMD = -2.10; 95% CI, -3.54 to -0.66; p = 0.004). The effects on depressive symptoms and pulse rate (PR) were minimal (p > 0.1). Conclusion: Our findings suggest that RD aromatherapy can effectively reduce anxiety, improve related hemodynamic parameters, and alleviate stress symptoms, while also enhancing sleep quality. However, its effects on depressive symptoms and PR were smaller, indicating a need for larger randomized trials. Systematic review registration:PROSPERO (ID: CRD42024593400).
Keywords: Rosa damascene aromatherapy, Anxiety, depressive symptoms, Sleep, systematic review and meta-analysis
Received: 13 Jun 2025; Accepted: 30 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Xu, Shen, Xu, Xue, Wu, Wang and Hu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Xuqiang Hu, huxuqiang@hz3rd-hosp.cn
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.