Sneezing comes as a reaction of small particles like pollen or dust floating up to your nose and irritating your membrane. A sneeze is involuntary, but for someone with a cold, flu or allergy it is more common.
It takes less than a second to eject about 5000 droplets of mucus from our nostrils at speeds of up to 100 miles per hour. If you have the flu, the infectious snot particles can travel up to nearly 30 feet and remain suspended in the air for up to 10 minutes, creating a plume of biohazard air that threatens anyone in its path.
However, sneezing involves more than expelling air and foreign particles. When stimulated, the brain stem’s sneeze center orders muscle contractions from esophagus to sphincter. That includes the muscles controlling the eyelids. Some sneezers even shed a few tears.
Some people can keep their eyes open during sneezing, and contrary to popular belief, nothing damaging happens in that case and your eyeballs definitely do not pop out. For most of us, our eyelids shut down as part of the sneeze reaction. As to why, it is one of science’s big mysteries.
According to most researchers, closing your eyes when sneezing is an involuntary response, a reflex, like when your leg jerks after being tapped on the knee. The most common response to the question is that we shut our eyelids so that when we sneeze out germs they don’t fall on our eyes. Or maybe your eyes shut because they are one of a series of muscles that tighten during that involuntary response.
Can holding in a sneeze cause damage?
Being in a quiet space, on-camera or during an important moment, sometimes we just don’t want to let that whoosh out. But sneezing is actually good for you. It is your body informing you that you might be inhaling pollen, dust particles or other
The bottom line is that holding the sneeze may actually hurt you. For starters, the force can rupture your eardrums or cause a blod vessel to pop in your eye, thus damaging your hearing or your vision. Moreover, the pressure accumulated in your chest can cause rib fracture or vocal cord damage.
So, even if you are in a quiet zone, wedding or in a class, think of your health first and let that sneeze out!
Source: BBC, Live Science, Mental Floss
