Science question from a layperson.

[Brian37]

Am I the only one who has noticed that when you feel like you need to sneeze pointing your eyes, to a bright object, like the sun, or or house light, even when your eyes are  closed, helps speed up the process?

[Alan V]

Am I the only one who has noticed that when you feel like you need to sneeze pointing your eyes, to a bright object, like the sun, or or house light, even when your eyes are  closed, helps speed up the process?

For some but not all people, that helps.  My brother-in-law often sneezed when he went from dim indoors to bright outdoors.  It just triggered his sneezing reflex.

[Brian37]

Am I the only one who has noticed that when you feel like you need to sneeze pointing your eyes, to a bright object, like the sun, or or house light, even when your eyes are  closed, helps speed up the process?

For some but not all people, that helps.  My brother-in-law often sneezed when he went from dim indoors to bright outdoors.  It just triggered his sneezing reflex.

Yea, I accept that it is a reflex, but what in a scientific aspect causes that reflex?

[c172]

same for me, but I've never known the cause. I'm out the door, but I'll Google it if no one answers when I return. Good thread.

[Dancefortwo]

Sneezing because of bright sunlight is a genetic thing that around 25% of the population has.   I have it.  It's called, get this, Autosomal Compelling Helio Ophthalmic Outburst  (Achoo) or Photic sneeze reflex. When I was first married and my husband and I would go to a movie you can bet that everytime we'd go out in the bright sunlight I'd sneeze.  I thought everyone did this but Hubby kept wondering why I sneezed after going to the movies and looked at me as if I was daft. No one in his family sneezes from bright sun.  My father had this. My mother did not.  Out of my 8 siblings me and two of my brothers sneezes in bright sunlight.  




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photic_sneeze_reflex

Ya learn something new everyday on this forum don't cha?     

[Dancefortwo]

Am I the only one who has noticed that when you feel like you need to sneeze pointing your eyes, to a bright object, like the sun, or or house light, even when your eyes are  closed, helps speed up the process?

My optomistrist didn't even know about the Photic sneeze reflex.  So I had to explain what it was.  He had no idea.

[brunumb]

Ya learn something new everyday on this forum don't cha?     

Awesome Dancefortwo.  Is there also a scientific explanation for why we always close our eyes when we sneeze?

[grympy]

I hate sneezing these days. I  now have the trifecta; sneeze,  fart and piss simultaneously.

The good news is that I can still trust a fart.

[Alan V]

I saw a piece on the news today which said fetuses and newborns hiccup a lot to establish connections in their brains for breathing, and that adult hiccupping may be a holdover of that instinct. I had never heard that before.

https://www.livescience.com/why-we-hiccup.html

In utero, the fetus gets oxygen through the placenta, but as soon as the baby is born, his or her life depends on being able to breathe, Kahrilas explained. "You have to have a breathing apparatus that is already trained," he said. Kahrilas suggests that hiccups, which begin in utero, provide that training by repetitively causing the breathing muscles to contract. "It's almost like an isometric exercise … you're trying to inhale, but then you're closing the [airway], so that it makes it harder to inhale," Kahrilas said.

It's an exercise that fetuses in utero and neonates do a lot. Preterm infants spend an estimated 1% of their time (about 14 minutes per day) hiccupping, according to a recent study in Clinical Neurophysiology that examined the brain activity associated with hiccupping in preemies. Researchers have recorded hiccupping in the womb as early as nine weeks into gestation, said Lorenzo Fabrizi, a senior research fellow in the department of neuroscience, physiology and pharmacology at University College London, who led the study.

[Cheerful Charlie]

If you sneeze when you go out into daylight from inside, it means that in your ancestry, you have a touch of vampire.

[Dancefortwo]

Ya learn something new everyday on this forum don't cha?     

Awesome Dancefortwo.  Is there also a scientific explanation for why we always close our eyes when we sneeze?

I would imagine that it's physically impossible to keep your eyes open during a sneeze.   But here's another thing to ponder.....do elephants sneeze? How about other animals?  Watch this and find out.   

[Fireball]

Ya learn something new everyday on this forum don't cha?     

Awesome Dancefortwo.  Is there also a scientific explanation for why we always close our eyes when we sneeze?

If you don't close your eyelids, your eyes will blow out of your head when you sneeze. Known fact.  

[brunumb]

I would imagine that it's physically impossible to keep your eyes open during a sneeze.

Yes.  I think I heard that somewhere.  I wonder why?  

[JimBones]

Well now I have to try sneezing with my eyes open. Wonder how I'll get my eyeballs back in if they fall out.

[TonyAnkle]

Well now I have to try sneezing with my eyes open. Wonder how I'll get my eyeballs back in if they fall out.

Try humming while holding your nose. It does your head in.

[JimBones]

Well now I have to try sneezing with my eyes open. Wonder how I'll get my eyeballs back in if they fall out.

Try humming while holding your nose. It does your head in.

Makes my ears pop. Hey, that might work for scuba diving.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Why does it sometimes feel like a fart, but is actually something more?

Of course, asking for a friend.

[TonyAnkle]

Well now I have to try sneezing with my eyes open. Wonder how I'll get my eyeballs back in if they fall out.

Try humming while holding your nose. It does your head in.

Makes my ears pop. Hey, that might work for scuba diving.

There's at least twenty people in here who have just tried that but would never admit it

[JimBones]

LOL I'm sure you're right on that

[Chas]

Why does it sometimes feel like a fart, but is actually something more?

Of course, asking for a friend.

That would be a shart.  Shart happens.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Why does it sometimes feel like a fart, but is actually something more?

Of course, asking for a friend.

That would be a shart.  Shart happens.

It doesn't just happen. It's caused by assholes.

[SYZ]

It doesn't just happen. It's caused by assholes.

Or not—hopefully—as the case may be.