What Really Happens To Your Body When You Sneeze

If you're the type that likes to sound all technical and scientific and never get invited to parties, the official term for a sneeze is "sternutation." When it happens, it happens in two parts. The first is the respiratory phase, which is essentially the stimulus that starts the sneeze. You know the feeling. It can be anything from a tickle in your nose to, weirdly, a full stomach, which is apparently a thing for some people.

When you start feeling that tickling sensation that's heralding a big bout of sternutation, that's coming through something called the trigeminal nerve, which is one of the 12 nerves that run across your cranium to your face and, particularly, your nose. At the end of the nerve are a whole bunch of little receptors that are sensitive to different things, and that's where the trigger happens. When the trigger's strong enough, it kicks off a reflexive action that hits a section in your brain called the lateral medulla. That's the thing that actually tells your body it's time to get a whole lot of sternutation going on, and the signal goes off to get the rest of your body involved. That includes most of your respiratory system, some of your circulatory system, and your muscles.

Weirdly, the body's so-called "sneeze center" is an incredibly specific area pinpointed with the help of a 23-year-old patient who went to the hospital with numbness in her face and arms, the complete inability to sneeze or yawn, and the development of hiccups after eating. MRIs revealed damage to the nerves in her brain stem, and her inability to sneeze was the final symptom to remain. That gave researchers an even better idea of just where sternutation starts in the brain.

We'll stop saying "sternutation" now. Please invite us to your parties.

There's a couple of old wives' tales that get told about what happens when you sneeze. One of them is that a bit of your soul can escape. Fortunately, we've been told we don't have a soul, so no worries there. Another one is that your heart stops in the instant you sneeze, and this is one tall tale that's ... actually got a bit of truth to it.

According to Dr. Christopher Magovern from New Jersey's Morristown Medical Center, part of your body's prep work for sneezing means taking a deep breath. That, and the muscle contractions, puts pressure on your chest and can make your heart skip a beat. Your heart rate actually drops, but he also says that's not exclusive to sneezing. There's a lot of other types of stimulus that can make the same thing happen, even coughing.

Most of us don't notice if our heart stutters, as we're presumably too busy apologizing, cleaning ourselves up or, in extreme circumstances, cleaning someone else up. In some cases though, people can experience a fainting spell triggered by the sneeze. It's called glossopharyngeal neuralgia (we won't use that term again, spelling it once was bad enough), and it's caused by the pressure on the carotid sinus, which is one of the main arteries in your neck. It's a rare condition, but sneezing can interfere with the artery (and your heart rate), to occasionally make you hit the floor when it happens. Nothing in the study says who's responsible for the cleanup if that happens.

So, what's the deal with those annoying people that can't seem to be satisfied with the attention they get from one sneeze, and who have to do it again until we just plain give up with the "Bless yous" and "Gesundheits"? You're right — these people really are high maintenance.

According to Dr. Jordan S. Josephson of New York City's Lennox Hill Hospital, those sneezes are typically caused by an irritant that gets stuck along the person's nasal passages. When this happens, some people are unable to clear it with just one sneeze, and it can take a sneeze or two to dislodge the foreign particles, and another sneeze or two to send it rocketing out the nose. So, someone who does it might not be doing it on purpose, but they're definitely not sneezing as efficiently as the rest of us. That's right, Janet in Accounting, we're looking at you. And we're not saying "Bless you" again.

There's two types of people in this world. There's the ones that have a little tiny, dainty sneeze that doesn't even sound like a sneeze, leaving you wondering whether to even say "Gesundheit," and by the time you've decided, it's too late and it's only led to an awkward social situation. Then there's the people with sneezes so loud and violent they cause car accidents, even when they're not in the car. (Well, technically we suppose there's three types. There's also the type that sneezes into their trombone. Seriously, it's hilarious.)

So what's the deal? Apparently, part of it is a matter of lung capacity. The bigger the breath, the louder the sneeze. There's also a matter of control, and a 2006 study found that most people admit they consciously have a couple of different kinds of sneezes. There's the polite society sneeze that happens when they try to make the least amount of noise as possible, and then there's the "behind-closed-doors, I'm-not-wearing-pants-anyway-so-the-sneeze-won't-make-me-more-offensive" sort of sneezes. Some people have more control over what happens after the reflex action kicks off, and that allows them to sneeze like mice, while others will always give the cat a heart attack.

Go on, get your chuckles out. We already did. There's a rumor floating around that sneezing once or seven times gives the same brain-feelings as an orgasm. We admit, we're a little cynical about this one because, if true, explain all those people who loudly complain every time they come down with hay fever.

However, the scientific world isn't one to miss out on any grant money, so they've looked into it, and concluded that its true. Sort of. According to University of Sydney sexologist Vanessa Thompson, sneezing really does release feel-good hormones into the brain, specifically endorphins. Part of the fuzzy feeling you get after a particularly good sneeze likely has something to do with these chemicals, but truthfully, it's likely got more to do with the relief that the tickling is gone. Plus, since the effects of sneezing aren't cumulative, it's not like lots of endorphins are going to build up in your brain and make other things feel all warm and fuzzy.

However, it turns out that there is a weird connection between sex and sneezing. In 1972, the Journal of the American Medical Association took a look at the case of a 69-year-old man who reported suffering from sneezing attacks right after an orgasm. (We're not going to comment. We're going to keep it *classy*.) In 2008, a paper submitted to the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine took a look at this man's issue, in the context of an incredibly Victorian observation made in the 1880s. Back then, one man suggested there was such a similarity in "erectile tissue" that sneezing really was a headgasm. It was such a weird theory, he was even disowned by his one-time close friend, Sigmund Freud. And we all know what a nutter he could be.

Researchers did some trolling through anonymous chat rooms, because where else is anyone going to talk about this? They found there was a surprising number of people who experienced the connection but, for some reason, only really talked about it in internet chat rooms. It (along with other weird sneezing issues, like sneezing after eating) seems to happen when other sensations trigger the trigeminal nerve, and, well, your medulla gets all confused. We like to think it's blushing.