Is it possible to open your eyes while sneezing

National Library of Medicine. They do have some theories, though. One is that you close your eyes when you sneeze to protect those delicate organs from the particles and microorganisms bursting from your mouth and nose, Kelsy Steele, O. In theory, that gunk could get into your eyes and cause anything from irritation to an infection. Steele says. Another theory is that the eye-closing part of a sneeze is simply due to a series of involuntary muscle contractions, Dr. Reisacher says. Muscles in your face squeeze as you sneeze, he explains.

Hence the wonky facial expressions that are part and parcel of this biological process. However, there is technically a nearly negligible chance that you could try this and experience a condition called globe subluxation. First off, though it an autonomic reflex to close your eyes when you sneeze, it is actually possible to sneeze with your eyes open. Notice how her eyes didn't pop out? This is because the air spaces in the nose and throat aren't connected to anything behind the eye, meaning that there's no way a sneeze can create pressure that would force your eyes to shoot out and dangle around like a game of swingball.

The origin of the legend appears to be a story published on April 30, , in The New York Times , which claimed that a woman's eyeballs slid out after a bout of aggressive sneezing. While riding on a street car, she was seized with a sudden fit of sneezing and burst one of her eyeballs, from which she has since been suffering the most intense pain. Given that there are no modern cases of this happening, it's unlikely to be true.

It is possible albeit difficult to keep our eyes open during a sneeze, said Dr. It's not entirely clear why people blink while sneezing, but it likely plays a protective role, he said. Related: Why do people sneeze in threes? Sneezing, known to researchers as the sternutation reflex, protects our nasal passageways from foreign particles by forcing a mph whoosh of air from the lungs.

Previous accounts put that speed at mph, but a study published in the journal PLOS ONE found that six volunteers had sneeze speeds of 4. 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.