When the inside of your nose gets a tickle, a message is sent to a special part of your brain called the sneeze center. The sneeze center then sends a message to all the muscles that have to work together to create the amazingly complicated process that we call the sneeze (or sternutation). This is your body's way of removing an irritation from your nose. Some of the muscles involved in a sneeze are the abdominal (belly) muscles, the chest muscles, the diaphragm (the large muscle beneath your lungs that makes you breathe), the muscles that control your vocal cords, and muscles in the back of your throat.
Anything that can irritate the inside of your nose can start a sneeze. Common causes include dust, cold air, or pepper. When you catch a cold in your nose, a virus has made a temporary home there and is causing lots of swelling and irritation. Some people have allergies and they sneeze when they are exposed to certain things such as animal dander (which comes from the skin of many common pets) or pollen (which comes from some plants). Below are facts you should know about this very common phenomenon.
1.
Sneezes don’t make your heart
skip a beat -Sneezing
does make your heart slow down. Think about the first thing you do when you
feel that tickle in your nose: You take a big, deep breath and hold it. That
deep breath tightens the muscles in your chest and increases pressure in your
lungs all of which stems the flow of blood to your heart, which momentarily
lowering your blood pressure and increasing your heart rate. When you let all
that air out in one big gush, your blood pressure quickly goes back up and your
heart rate down. The sudden drop can make it seem like your heart stopped for a
second, but for most people it’s just a little slower.
2.
The color of
your mucus means something-Your nose
produces one to two pints of mucus every day. Typically, that mucus should be
clear. If
your mucus is green, yellow, or brown it
could mean that you have an infection and you should see your doctor. White
cells working to fight the infection in your mucus are what cause the color to
change color.
3.
The sun can be a trigger to
sneezing- "ACHOO" isn't just the sound you make when you
sneeze—it's also the acronym for a not-so-rare sneezing syndrome
officially called Autosomal Dominant Compulsive Helio Ophthalmic Outbursts of
sneezing, which describes the phenomenon of sneezing when you look at the sun. It’s
not just the sun, but any bright light can set off a chain reaction of sneezes
for someone with ACHOO. Scientists estimate ACHOO affects between 10 and 35 percent of the
population.
Since it doesn’t do any harm. It
hasn’t been well studied. Only a handful of studies even exist concerning it so
scientists aren’t sure exactly what causes it. Some theorize that it’s an
anomaly in the parasympathetic nervous system. Others say it’s a leftover trait
from a stage of evolution. A 2010 study
out of Switzerland suggests that the brains of people who have it are just more
easily excited than most.
4.
The velocity of a sneeze might
surprise you-In the
1950s, Harvard biologist William Firth Wells estimated that a sneeze could travel
as fast as 100 meters per second that’s 224 mph. While Welles’s estimation now
appears to be quite exaggerated, sneezes do move with some force. A study by a
team of scientists in Singapore found that sneezes travel at a rate up to 10
mph. And when Mythbusters
hosts Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage took on the challenge of measuring a
sneeze, they saw nothing faster than 35 mph. “If somebody did this in
North America, where people have bigger body frames than here they might find
higher velocities.
5.
You can’t keep your eyes open during
a sneeze-Anyone who suffered through
allergies in elementary school knows the taunt l: “Be careful! That sneeze is
going to pop your eyes out!” Contrary to the wisdom of 10-year-olds, a forceful
sneeze isn’t going to send your eyeballs flying out of their sockets. So why do
we close our eyes when we sneeze? It’s just a reflex. The nerves in your nose
are actually connected to nerves in your eyes so when you sneeze the
stimulation causes you to blink.
6.
You can’t sneeze in your sleep-Ever
wondered why you never wake up sneezing? The answer puzzled scientists, too. When
you lie down, the mucous membranes in your nose actually swell, which should
make you more sensitive to the dust particles swirling in and out of your
nostrils. But it turns out that during Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep. This is the
deep, restful sleep you’re in when you're dreaming. All muscles except those
that control the eyes are essentially paralyzed. That includes muscles that
would expand and contract to let out a sneeze. Even when you’re not in REM
sleep, the neurons responsible for causing a sneeze are still suppressed.
7.
You must cover your mouth-Your mom
wasn’t just nagging for any good reason when she told you to cover your mouth
when you cough or sneeze. Researchers at MIT have classified sneezes as
multiphase turbulent buoyant bubbles, which essentially means that little
particles from your sneeze stay suspended in the air for longer than previously
thought with all the bacteria. Those little droplets of spit float around like
feathers in the wind until they finally fall on some unsuspecting person (or
spot) moments later.
“I have caught more ills from
people sneezing over me and giving me virus infections than from kissing dogs.” (Barbara Woodhouse)[i]
[i] Sources used:
·
“12
Weird Facts You Never Knew About Sneezing” by Morgan Cutolo
·
“7 Things You Never
Knew About Sneezing” By
·
“What Makes Me Sneeze?” Reviewed by: Rupal
Christine Gupta
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