Sneezes can be triggered by dust or cold air or rubbing your eyes – or even looking at a bright light. A sneeze is a reflex – a response you don’t have to think about. When something irritates or tickles the inside of your nose, a message goes to a part of your nervous system called the “sneeze center.” It sends a message to muscles from your eyelids to your abdomen to coordinate a response.
If you sneeze at the sun, it’s not the heating of your nostrils that’s provoking you, it’s your DNA! The sun-sneezing reflex seems to be genetically controlled. It appears to be inherited as a dominant trait, so sun-sneezers have a fifty-fifty chance of passing on the gene to each child. Not only does sun-sneezing run in the family, but so might the number of times a person sneezes in response to the sun – sometimes even numbering in the double-digits.
About one out of four people are “photic” sneezers, meaning that they sneeze when exposed to bright light. Geneticists have a name for this phenomenon. It’s called Autosomal dominant Compelling Helio-Ophthalmic Outburst syndrome – or ACHOO!
