Photic Sneeze Reflex (or An Interesting Entry, Honest)

[davidn]

I had a dream about Bill Bailey turning in to a zombie last night. Perhaps it was because I'd been playing King's Quest 2 all day yesterday (so that I could hear the MIDI strings instrument in my ears for hours afterwards). But that's not the point of this entry - I realised a while ago that even though I'd mentioned it to many people before, I haven't asked people on LJ about photic sneeze reflex. I find this a fascinating condition, because even though a significant number of people have it it's hardly noticeable to others, and those who have it don't tend to think anything special of it. I am one of them, and so is my father, but not the rest of my family.

Photic sneeze reflex is a condition where you sneeze in bright light - often when stepping outside on a bright day after being indoors for a while. Because of the way that light causes sneezing, sufferers also tend to turn to lights when they feel a sneeze coming on, to speed it up. It occurs because the nerves for light reception and sneezing are very close to each other in the brain, and if they are close enough, then light can trigger a sneeze.

I'd like to find out how common this is among people reading this - does sunlight make you sneeze? Or is this all entirely new to you? When Whitney made a post about it in Philip's forum they all thought she was just mad. Personally, I had assumed that it happened to everyone, so didn't think to even ask people about it until last year.

Comments

[wilddon121.livejournal.com]

I pretty much assumed the same thing, I quite often sneeze because of bright lights, also sometimes due to hayfever. Usually when I have one of my sneezing days I just tend to shut myself away in a dark room to let it all calm down. I have known a few people to have this happen to them aswell.

[plette.livejournal.com]

I read an anthropology article about this once. The theory was that the reflex is a holdover from when humans lived in caves, and people who sneezed when exposed to light became favoured by evolution because they cleared the dust and grime out of their breathing passages every time they stepped out of the dark cave into the sunlight, and thus had more open breathing passages and could live longer, make more babies, etc. So...congratulations, you'd make a great caveman ;)

[gr33bo.livejournal.com]

Sunlight doesn't make me sneeze....waking up, on the other hand, I appear to be allergic to.

[ex-gh232.livejournal.com]

I've got it! I know it isn't hayfever, since I don't sneeze when I'm outside on dull days, only when it's really bright.

[stubbleupdate.livejournal.com]

When i'm at work and it's dusty and i'm about to sneeze i look into the bright lights. the sneeze is stifled and becomes a yawn.

This is exactly the opposite of what you were all talking about, but... never mind. soon be friday

[mercuryanna.livejournal.com]

I do the "speed it up by looking at bright light" thing too.

I knew a guy who was extremely photic or however you say it... when passing through dappled sunlight (shade, sun, shade, sun) he sneezed an amazing 10 times in a row.

Yowzah.

[stefan-lindner.livejournal.com]

ah yeah, i have it too, and i've always been quite fascinated about it. it's nice to finally know a logical explanation for it.
before i read your entry i believed it was normal and something that happened to everyone. all the people in my family have it too.
actually i'm not only someone who speeds their sneezing up by looking into bright light, i also tend to look into bright light sometimes (when i wouldn't have to sneeze at all) just cause i enjoy sneezing.

[jenny0.livejournal.com]

I read something about this, in one of those books of unanswerable questions answered or whatever they're called. It seemed to assume that everyone sneezes when you look at the sun - which I've never done, so it seemed a bit of an odd question. Glad to know it does actually apply to some people ;)