Why do we sneeze? Why do your eyes close? A pediatric nurse explains the science of sneezing
Why do we sneeze? – Naomi, 9, San Francisco, California
Why do people sneeze with their eyes closed? Is there a way for people to sneeze with their eyes open? – Carlos, 11, Riverview, Florida
Why do adults make a loud noise when they sneeze? – Artie, 8, Brooklyn, New York
Aaaaa-choo! While your first thought may be to say 'Gesundheit!' your second might be to ask: 'Where did that sneeze come from?'
Sneezing is a phenomenon that occurs in both people and animals. It happens when your body forcibly expels air from your lungs through your nose and mouth.
Most of the time, sneezing happens when something infectious, like a virus or bacteria, or irritating, like an allergen or chemical, enters your nostrils. Your body uses sneezing as a defense mechanism to clear your nose of mucus – also known as snot – and prevent foreign objects and particles from entering your airway.
But sneezing can also occur as a reaction to more unusual stimuli.
Chemicals like piperine or capsaicin found in foods like black pepper and chili peppers can irritate the nerve endings inside your nose's mucous membranes and lead to a sneeze.
Another type of sneeze is psychogenic, meaning it's caused by something more mental than physical. Though not fully understood, researchers believe it occurs when a strong emotion triggers your brain to send a chemical signal to your nose that makes you sneeze.
And finally, about one in four people experience something called photosneezia, or a photic sneeze reflex, where light, particularly sunlight, can trigger a sneeze.
Is it possible to sneeze without closing your eyes?
Despite a popular myth that sneezing with your eyes open will make them pop out, it's actually possible to keep your eyes open when you sneeze.
Closing your eyes during a sneeze is an autonomic reflex. This means that your body does it without you needing to consciously think about it. Scientists believe that your body makes your eyes close when you sneeze to decrease the likelihood of germs getting into them.
It's possible to fight that reflex and intentionally keep your eyes open. But it might be better to keep them closed to avoid getting the germs you expelled into your eyes.
Why do you make noises when you sneeze?
Some people have very loud sneezes, while others have more delicate sneezes.
The noise you make when you sneeze is a result of air escaping your mouth or nose. Generally, the more air you breathe in, the louder your sneeze will be. Like closing your eyes, inhaling prior to a sneeze is largely a reflex but could be consciously controlled as well.
Some people even hold in or 'swallow' their sneezes, though health experts don't recommend this due to potential risk for injury. Some sneezes can be so powerful they expel mucous droplets as forcefully as 100 miles per hour!
What is proper sneezing etiquette?
Although sneezing is sometimes just a reflex, or the result of an allergy or chemical irritation, sneezing can also be a symptom of a contagious illness or upper respiratory infection.
When you feel the urge to sneeze, best practice is to sneeze into a tissue or your sleeve to catch the germs that may come out with the air you expelled. If you caught your sneeze with a tissue or touched your nose and mouth, good hand hygiene, like washing with soap and water or using hand sanitizer, is especially important to help prevent spreading germs.
Whether you sneeze with your eyes open or closed, loudly or quietly, covering your mouth and nose when you sneeze and washing your hands for 20 seconds after can help protect others from getting sick.
Hello, curious kids! Do you have a question you'd like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com. Please tell us your name, age and the city where you live.
And since curiosity has no age limit – adults, let us know what you're wondering, too. We won't be able to answer every question, but we will do our best.
This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Meg Sorg, Purdue University
Read more:
Why hand-washing really is as important as doctors say
Why do people faint?
Pollen is getting worse, but you can make things better with these tips from an allergist
Meg Sorg does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
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More On Personas As Digital Twins Yet another approach is to merely and shallowly describe the persona based on your overall semblance of the person. This is somewhat similar to my earlier point that you can use personas by simply entering a prompt that the devised persona is supposed to represent a person with depression. That's a vague indication and would seem untethered to a specific person. The downside, of course, is that the surface-level persona might not be of much help to you. What are you going to do with whatever persona you craft? You could try to figure out the emotional triggers of the person, as represented via the persona. What kind of coping style do they have? How does their coping mechanism react to the therapy you have in mind? All sorts of therapy-oriented strategies and tactics can be explored and assessed. In essence, you are trying out different interventions on the persona, i.e., the digital twin. Maybe you are mulling over variations of CBT techniques and want to land on a particular approach. Perhaps you often use exposure therapy and are unsure of how that will go over with the client or patients. This provides a no-risk means of determining your therapy in a simulated environment and prepares you for sessions with the actual person. Don't Fall For The Persona I trust and hope that any therapist or mental health professional going the route of using a persona as a digital twin is going to keep their wits about themselves. Ordinary users of AI who use personas can readily go off the deep end and believe that the persona is real. Do not let that same fate befall you. The persona is merely the persona. Period, end of story. You cannot assume that the persona is giving you an accurate reading of the person. The AI could be completely afield in terms of how the person will actually respond and react. Expect that the AI will almost certainly overrepresent some traits, underrepresent other traits, and be convincing as it does so. Convincingness is the trick involved. Contemporary generative AI is so seemingly fluent that you are drawn into a mental trap of believability. Inside your head, you might hear this internal voice: 'It must be showing me the true inner psyche of my client or patient! The AI is working miracles at modeling the person. Wow, AI is utterly amazing.' You must resist the urge to become over-reliant on the digital twin. Over-reliance is a likely possibility. Here's how. You use the persona. After doing so, you later meet with the client or patient. Everything the AI indicated as to responses and reactions appears to mirror what the person says and does during the session. Awesome. You decide to keep using the persona. Over and over, you use the persona. Voila, you are hooked. The persona has led you down a primrose path. The seemingly uncanny portrayal has been spot-on. The problem is that when the client or patient diverges from the persona, you are going to have your mind turned backward. The person must be wrong, because the persona was always right. In other words, the person is supposed to be acting as the persona does. The world has gone topsy-turvy. But it's you, because you have forsaken your therapist mindset and allowed AI to capture and defeat your real-world acuity. That's bad news. Do not let that happen. Additional Twists And Turns There is a lot more to consider when using AI as a digital twin in a mental health context. I'll be covering more in a series of postings. Be on the watch. One quick point to get your mental juices flowing is this. Suppose that you have gotten written consent from the client or patient, and they know that you are using AI to depict a persona of them. The person comes to one of your later sessions and starts to suspect that you are proceeding as if it is based on what the AI told you. They worry that the AI is portraying them in some unpleasant fashion. Furthermore, they now insist that you let them access the persona. They want to see how it represents them. Mull that over and think about how you would contend with that potential nightmare scenario. It's a doozy. It could arise. A final thought for now. Albert Einstein famously made this remark: 'My mind is my laboratory.' Yes, that's abundantly true. In the case of mental health therapy, besides your mind being your laboratory, it turns out that AI can be your laboratory too. Proceed with aplomb.
