“Dust or black pepper particles in the nose, for example, irritate the mucosa and leads to a sneeze reflex to prevent you being hurt by a noxious environment.”īut why did evolution decide for some of us to sneeze when accosted by bright light? Is it a forceful warning to keep my pale, Scottish skin from the sun’s burning rays? (Answer: Likely, no.) “When we sneeze, there is a huge contraction of the diaphragm all at once,” Ptáček said. An estimated 40,000 microscopic particles can spew out of the human body - at a rate 85 percent the speed of sound - each time we sneeze. It is a reflex meant to protect the nasal passages and lungs from infectious agents or irritants. Photo by Cultura/Seb Oliver/Getty ImagesĪ regular sneeze is a violent preemptive strike. Photic sneeze reflex is a relatively harmless disorder that causes people to sneeze in bright light after being in a dark space. Because its prevalence is higher in individuals with a family history of the disorder, the handful of scientists who have studied the phenomena suspect a genetic, autosomal dominant - a person needs only one parent with the condition to inherit it. Additionally, a not-yet-established length of time in a darkened space - called a refractory period - must pass before an individual with photic sneeze reflex will sneeze in light again.Īs it turns out, an estimated 10 to 35 percent of the population has a photic sneeze reflex. Sunlight is a trigger, but artificial illumination from light bulbs and camera flashes can also cause sneezes. The disorder is characterized by a sudden outburst of one or multiple sneezes when a dark-adapted person - they’ve been in a darkened space for a while - is suddenly exposed to light. They’ll say, ‘It helps me get a sneeze out.’” “Some people find it annoying, but some people like it to some extent. “It’s not a disease,” University of California, San Francisco neurologist and human geneticist Louis Ptáček told the NewsHour. An estimated 10 to 35 percent of the population has a photic sneeze reflex.
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