photic sneeze reflex

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do many of you suffer with this?

why is it that people who don't have it always seem to think that it doesn't exist, or that it's all in the sufferer's head?

i mean, why would anyone pretend to get photic sneezes? what on earth would they have to gain from it?

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Monday, 3 July 2006 19:09 (nineteen years ago)

i get photic sneezes quite regularly, and have done for as long as i can remember. could you tell that from my original post?

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Monday, 3 July 2006 19:11 (nineteen years ago)

i'm not gonna look it up cuz of laziness, but is this where when i need to coax a sneeze out i look at the sun or a bright light?

― andrew m. (andrewmorgan), Monday, 3 July 2006 19:16 (nineteen years ago)

yes it is.

also (for me), sudden exposure to bright light can bring about a sneeze from nothing, not just coax out one that isn't quite coming.

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Monday, 3 July 2006 19:20 (nineteen years ago)

(ie. if i'm lying in the dark for a while, then switch on a lamp, it will often cause me to sneeze)

do other people believe you when you talk about it?

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Monday, 3 July 2006 19:22 (nineteen years ago)

well, most people i know seem to understand the "look at the light/sun" thing when they're working up a good sneeze. but sun and bright light doesn't regularly cause my sneeze as it seems to do for you.

― andrew m. (andrewmorgan), Monday, 3 July 2006 19:25 (nineteen years ago)

I am a photic sneezer. I like sneezing so it works out pretty well for me, generally.

I am also a cluster sneezer. I used to sneeze three times, invariable, but now it's more like 7 - 10.

― Party Time Country Female (pullapartgirl), Monday, 3 July 2006 19:35 (nineteen years ago)

i don't sneeze at bright light, though i think it's interesting that the proximity of optical and, uh, sneeze-inducing nerves can bring about that physical reaction in so many people.

i totally cluster sneeze though (which doesn't seem all that common), and i have a really weird sneeze, so people look at me like i'm having seizures or something.

― Juulia (julesbdules), Monday, 3 July 2006 19:39 (nineteen years ago)

Someone once told me (or perhaps I read it) that this was an example of crosstalk in the human nervous system - signals bleeding from one bundle of head-wires ("Cor! Bright!") to another ("Something in the nasal tract - get it out!").

The missus has just told me she never does this. I thought everyone did.

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Monday, 3 July 2006 22:07 (nineteen years ago)

I do it all the time, but with current sinus probs it's weird, I see the sun and need to sneeze and then it doesn't come through properly and I can't sneeze despite my body wanting me to.

― Ronan (Ronan), Monday, 3 July 2006 22:12 (nineteen years ago)

i am a photic sneeze reflexer as well.

― cutty (mcutt), Monday, 3 July 2006 22:22 (nineteen years ago)

A friend of mine always used to sneeze three times. It's gone up to four.

I don't know what photic sneezes are.

― Tracey Hand (tracerhand), Monday, 3 July 2006 23:03 (nineteen years ago)

What's a photic sneeze?

― chap who would dare to be a nerd, not a geek (chap), Monday, 3 July 2006 23:11 (nineteen years ago)

when you look at the sun and are forced to sneeze, or a light can also do it.

― Ronan (Ronan), Monday, 3 July 2006 23:12 (nineteen years ago)

I'm pretty sure people make it up.

― Alba (Alba), Monday, 3 July 2006 23:19 (nineteen years ago)

How many photic sneezers does it take to change a lightbulb?

― Ronan (Ronan), Monday, 3 July 2006 23:21 (nineteen years ago)

Happens to me a lot, when the sun is out and the skies are clear here. I've never had it caused by artificial light sources though.

― ALLAH FROG (Mingus Dew), Monday, 3 July 2006 23:22 (nineteen years ago)

I really enjoy it. Nothing I like better than the sun making me sneeze.

― Ronan (Ronan), Monday, 3 July 2006 23:22 (nineteen years ago)

its shit when youre driving with the sun in your eyes and nearly crash cos you're sneezing

― splates (splates), Monday, 3 July 2006 23:28 (nineteen years ago)

Maybe this is what happened to Icarus.

― chap who would dare to be a nerd, not a geek (chap), Monday, 3 July 2006 23:31 (nineteen years ago)

All the males in my family start sneezing when they walk outside on a sunny day. I do it sometimes too. Just the sun, though, not a lamp or anything.

― Maria (Maria), Monday, 3 July 2006 23:34 (nineteen years ago)

'...this was an example of crosstalk in the human nervous system'

Is this the same reason some people sneeze when they have an orgasm? Sorry to lower the tone...

― Ned T.Rifle (nedtrifle), Tuesday, 4 July 2006 07:51 (nineteen years ago)

No, that's ten sneezes = an orgasm.

― Chewshabadoo (Chewshabadoo), Tuesday, 4 July 2006 11:07 (nineteen years ago)

Photic sneezers are not allowed to be fighter pilots.

I remember hearing that it happens because (this will be in very unscientific terms, btw) your eyes water a bit in bright light and some kind of body fluid is also produced at the top of the nose on the other side of the eyes and some people's noses are more ticklish than others and that's why some people sneeze and others don't.

― Mädchen (Madchen), Tuesday, 4 July 2006 11:18 (nineteen years ago)

wiki wiki

― Mädchen (Madchen), Tuesday, 4 July 2006 11:19 (nineteen years ago)

If you sneeze while riding a motorcycle you travel at least 40 feet blind (not sure why this factoid isn't applied to car drivers too, possibly eyes stay shut longer with the wind factor?) Anyway I can see how it would be a disadvantage for a fighter pilot.

― Archel (Archel), Tuesday, 4 July 2006 11:23 (nineteen years ago)

damn, another dream dashed

― Ronan (Ronan), Tuesday, 4 July 2006 11:24 (nineteen years ago)

I remember being told I couldn't be a fighter pilot when I was five. I was a bit disappointed too.

― Pete (Pete), Tuesday, 4 July 2006 11:32 (nineteen years ago)

I was 13 before I realised I was possibly the least well-suited person on the planet to being a fighter pilot. I was gutted. And that's without the photic sneezing (I am a sneezer).

I want to know more about yr story, Pete.

― Zora (Zora), Tuesday, 4 July 2006 12:02 (nineteen years ago)

I was deemed too young. Maybe I should apply again.

― Pete (Pete), Tuesday, 4 July 2006 12:13 (nineteen years ago)

(Real reason, born with a squint, and use my eyes independently therefore no natural depth perception. Not as funny though.)

― Pete (Pete), Tuesday, 4 July 2006 12:40 (nineteen years ago)

The condition is passed along genetically as an autosomal dominant trait.

I was about to say that Ophelia has it just like me. There. I also cluster sneeze.

― Nathalie (stevie nixed), Tuesday, 4 July 2006 12:50 (nineteen years ago)

Ptee, have you read the Oliver Sacks essay just recently published in the something or other, about stereo vision and acquired depth perception? It's fascinating.

― Tracey Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 4 July 2006 13:01 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.mattscdsingles.com/acatalog/29963nsns.jpg
Caught a Light sneeze?

― mark grout (mark grout), Tuesday, 4 July 2006 13:16 (nineteen years ago)

No, find more details. I mean I do have depth perception but it is acquired and also means I was always a touch slow on sport, lacked the critical impluse (and almost none if it was coming right at me).

I pwn people at sport if they have one eye closed. In the one eyed kingdom, I would win Superstars.

― Pete (Pete), Tuesday, 4 July 2006 13:26 (nineteen years ago)

I have the same problem but I always figured it was because I can't see with my both eyes (simultaneously).

― Nathalie (stevie nixed), Tuesday, 4 July 2006 13:37 (nineteen years ago)

Wel, yes that is why, but it came about cos I was born with a squint and my eyes point in different directions like a less funny Marty Feldman. To complicate matters one is short sighted whilst t'other is longsighted.

― Pete (Pete), Tuesday, 4 July 2006 13:44 (nineteen years ago)

They tried to fix it but gave me some scar tissue. hah. I was extremely cross-eyed as a baby. And I have the same problem in re to short/long-sightedness, only I mainly see with my right eye. I don't bother with the other one.

― Nathalie (stevie nixed), Tuesday, 4 July 2006 13:48 (nineteen years ago)

Oh I use both, one for reading, one for a long way away away. I swop both a lot too as it freaks people about a bit (in a very minor way). I had three cosmetic ops which all failed, so I'll never be a test pilot.

― Pete (Pete), Tuesday, 4 July 2006 13:59 (nineteen years ago)

four years pass...

can we start a support group for photic sneeze reflex?

― cutty, Tuesday, 31 August 2010 15:52 (fifteen years ago)

I believe this dog has an idea:

http://i646.photobucket.com/albums/uu181/SanFrancisco__/dealwithit.gif

(put on sunglasses to avoid the sun's sneezy rays)

― sharkless dick stick (Abbbottt), Tuesday, 31 August 2010 15:53 (fifteen years ago)

lol

― cutty, Tuesday, 31 August 2010 16:00 (fifteen years ago)

Support group, nuthin'. What we need is our own superhero with a (sun-triggered) supersneeze for a superpower

― Myonga Vön Bontee, Tuesday, 31 August 2010 21:06 (fifteen years ago)

my name's darragh and i am a photic sneezer

― k¸ (darraghmac), Wednesday, 1 September 2010 14:07 (fifteen years ago)

the photic sneeze reflex, flex-flex-flex

― Lardo Calrissian (corey), Wednesday, 1 September 2010 14:10 (fifteen years ago)

Since we moved to CA my husband sneezes about 50 times a day, or at least 5 times every time he steps outside. It drives me nuts!

― Not the real Village People, Thursday, 2 September 2010 02:41 (fifteen years ago)

maybe you should be a little more sensitive to our affliction

― cutty, Friday, 3 September 2010 00:47 (fourteen years ago)

This is the first time I've heard of this and I'm pretty amazed it exists. I guess this means that when my friend told me plucking her eyebrows makes her sneeze I shouldn't have laughed and said "Bullshit".

― franny glass, Friday, 3 September 2010 02:09 (fourteen years ago)

Omg plucking my eyebrows totally makes me sneeze, tickles my nose at the very least.

― bamcquern, Friday, 3 September 2010 02:37 (fourteen years ago)

I be photic sneezin

― Jif it and loop it, gosh. (crüt), Friday, 3 September 2010 02:39 (fourteen years ago)

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