I can remember that my friends in elementary school would always ask me to make myself sneeze. They weren’t being gross. We would be at recess and they’d simply say, “Do it!” All I would have to do is look up at the sun and I’d sneeze.
One I had graduated from college, I found out that many people have this condition. Some people thing the acronym for it is overly cute because there is a really long name for the condition which leads to the acronym ACHOO. I like it and I think it is more fun to say, “I have ACHOO,” rather than saying, “I have Photic Sneeze Reflex.”
I also often sneeze when I am full after I eat. Sometimes I will even feel a little bit sick until I sneeze a few times and then I will feel just fine.
This makes me wonder about sneezing.
I already know that the Mythbusters proved that you cannot sneeze and have so much pressure build up that your eyeballs will pop out of your head because I saw that episode of Mythbusters. I also learned that while it is very difficult to sneeze and keep your eyes open, it can be done.
Anyway, with these few things, it makes me wonder about some more things about sneezing.
I decided that I’d read some facts about sneezing to find out if it could fill me in on the sneezing when I was full, since that seems to be the only real part that I don’t know.
The official name for sneezing is sternunation. Now I, and anybody who reads this article, can use the word sterunation, which sounds like a serious medical condition. However, it only means “sneezing.”
There are very common things that make people sneeze such as dust, pollen, and pepper. However, there are other things that make people sneeze. Changes in temperature, especially air that becomes colder, can cause people to sneeze. People may sneeze after rubbing their noses, popping pimples, or pluck eyebrows.
I’ve found that maybe it’s not so rare that I sneeze when I am full. There’s a name for sneezing after a big meal! The name for that is snatiation. This is another word that sounds like a serious medical condition. This is something that could be a lot of fun for people who are not in the know.
I already knew that sneezes were fast, but a person’s sneeze can travel at 100 miles per minute and easily travel up to five feet! This makes it important that people learn to cover their mouths and noses when they sneeze so germs, spit, and mucus do not land on other people or other surfaces.
There are also many superstitions about sneezing. Most of these center around why people say “Bless you” or something similar after a person sneezes. It all seems to go back to thinking that when people sneezed they were very sick and might die or that the soul was escaping, so people wished other people good health or asked God to bless them so they would be healthy.
