40 Fun Facts About Sneezing

The body's sneeze reflex is switched off while a person is doing which of these?

Sleeping in the REM stage brings on atonia, which leaves motor neurons unstimulated so reflex signals are never relayed, though a strong enough irritant can wake a person up to sneeze.

Which Galápagos reptile clears excess salt from its body by sneezing it out through its nostrils?

Marine iguana salt glands filter the blood and expel the brine at the nostrils in a sneeze-like burst, and the skull has an unusually large nasal cavity to hold them.

Which African predators hold a kind of vote by sneezing to decide whether the group sets off to hunt?

Wild dogs rally before a hunt, and the more of them that sneeze, the likelier the pack is to leave; when a dominant animal starts it, around three sneezes settle the matter.

The longest sneezing fit on record, which struck Britain's Donna Griffiths in 1981, lasted nearly how long?

Three years, near enough: it was two years and eight months before her first sneeze-free day, which Guinness counts as day 977, and she sneezed an estimated million times in the first year alone.

Fred Ott's Sneeze, one of the oldest surviving copyrighted films, was made in 1894 by which American inventor's company?

Thomas Edison's studio filmed his employee Fred Ott sneezing in a clip about five seconds long, and in 2015 the Library of Congress added it to the National Film Registry.

Piperine, a chemical said to irritate the nostrils, is blamed for the sneezing fits caused by which kitchen spice?

Black pepper gets its pungency from piperine, an alkaloid potent enough that it is also used as an insecticide and as an animal pest repellent.

Gesundheit, the German word many Americans say after a sneeze, literally means what?

Health is the wish in plenty of languages: German Gesundheit, Spanish salud, Italian salute and Swahili afya all mean exactly that.

In Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the dwarf Sneezy owes his explosive sneezes to which condition?

Hay fever gives Sneezy sneezes powerful enough to blow even the heaviest objects across a room, which is how the dwarf earned his name.

A lasting folk belief, with no basis in physiology, holds that which organ stops for an instant during a sneeze?

The heart keeps working through a sneeze, but the old idea that it paused is one of the folk explanations offered for the custom of blessing anyone who sneezes.

Which tissue brand, launched in 1924 as a cold cream remover, did customers turn into a disposable handkerchief?

Kleenex was first promoted with film stars wiping off stage make-up, until a newspaper test in Peoria, Illinois showed that most buyers were blowing their noses with it.

A popular myth, undone by the fact that the reflex can be suppressed, says nobody can sneeze with what open?

The eyes snap shut because the eyelid muscles contract involuntarily as the air is forced out, but the reflex can be overridden, so the old claim is inaccurate.

The Myanmar snub-nosed monkey, which has upturned nostrils, is said by local people to sneeze in what kind of weather?

Rain runs straight into its upturned nose, so the monkeys are reported to sit out downpours with their heads tucked between their knees.

In Japan, China and Korea, a sneeze with no obvious cause is traditionally taken as a sign that someone is doing what?

Talking about you behind your back is the traditional culprit, a belief that appears in China's ancient Book of Songs and is still played out in Japanese manga and anime.

One folk explanation for blessing a sneezer held that a sneeze briefly expelled what, leaving the body open to demons?

The soul was thought to slip out for a moment, leaving the sneezer briefly vulnerable to possession; the tale is recorded as folklore and has no basis in how the body works.

Which English word for dying comes from the Latin for 'breathe out', echoing an old belief tying life to breath?

Expire comes from the Latin exspirare, to breathe out, and that old link between breath and life is one suggested reason why a sneeze, a great rush of air, came to earn a blessing.

Which muscle contracts along with the muscles between the ribs to draw in the deep breath before a sneeze?

The diaphragm and the intercostal muscles fill the lungs first; then the muscles of the chest and abdomen contract powerfully to drive the air out in a single burst.

The reflex that makes some people sneeze in bright sunlight has been studied as a hazard for people in which job?

Fighter pilots could be incapacitated by a sneezing fit in aerial combat, and sunlight reflecting off the sea makes landings on an aircraft carrier a particular worry.

Snatiation is an inherited tendency to sneeze uncontrollably in response to what?

A full stomach straight after a large meal sets off the sneezing; the name blends sneeze and satiation, and the trait is reported to run in families as a dominant one.

Tickling which spot with the tip of the tongue is a popular trick for stopping a sneeze before it arrives?

The roof of the mouth is the spot said to do it, whereas holding a sneeze in by pinching the nose is discouraged because of the stress the trapped air puts on the lungs and airways.

Which chemical, released from mast cells when an allergen strikes, triggers the sneezing and itching of an allergy?

Histamine pours out once IgE antibodies latch on to an allergen, which is why the common allergy tablets that block its H1 receptors can calm an itchy, runny, sneezy nose.

Which virus, named from the Greek word for nose, is the leading cause of the sneezes of the common cold?

Rhinovirus is the most common viral infectious agent in humans, and it grows best at about 33°C, cooler than the body's core, which is why it settles in the nose and upper airways.

Pollen from which weed causes about half of all pollen-related allergic rhinitis in North America?

Ragweed is at its most abundant and diverse in North America; pollen was only identified as the cause of this kind of seasonal sneezing in 1859.

Pollen from which tree, known locally as sugi, is the leading cause of seasonal sneezing in Japan?

Cedar pollen from this native species, which is not a true member of the cedar genus at all, affected 38.8% of people in Japan in a 2019 government count.

Which cranial nerve, the fifth and the chief sensory nerve of the face, carries the signal that sets off a sneeze?

Trigeminal fibres relay irritation in the nasal lining to the brainstem, and the same nerve also handles biting and chewing, which makes it the most complex cranial nerve.

Which lower part of the brain, also the reflex centre for vomiting and swallowing, sends out the commands for a sneeze?

The medulla oblongata, a cone-shaped mass of neurons in charge of involuntary functions, sends signals along motor nerves to several muscle groups at once.

Which word do doctors use as the formal name for a sneeze, the reflex set off by irritation of the nasal lining?

Sternutation is the technical term, from the Latin sternuere, to sneeze; a substance that provokes sneezing is called a sternutator.

Helenium, a yellow daisy-like flower, is called sneezeweed because its dried leaves were once ground up to make what?

Snuff made from the leaves was inhaled to bring on sneezing that would supposedly rid the body of evil spirits; the genus itself is named for Helen of Troy.

Adamsite, classed among the chemical agents known as sneeze gases, was developed as a weapon during which conflict?

World War I saw it synthesized in Germany in 1915 and developed independently in 1918 by the American chemist Roger Adams, who gave the agent its name.

Which pope is said to have told Christians to answer a sneeze with a short prayer during the plague of 590?

Gregory I, known as Gregory the Great, features in the most widely repeated origin story for the English phrase bless you, since a sneeze was viewed as an early symptom.

Which English philosopher tested the sun-sneeze reflex in the 1600s by facing the sun with his eyelids shut?

Francis Bacon did not sneeze with his lids closed, which sank the older theory that the sun's warmth on the nose was responsible and suggested that sight plays the vital part.

In Homer's Odyssey, whose loud sneeze does Penelope welcome as an omen that the suitors will all be killed?

Telemachus sneezes so loudly that the whole house resounds with it, and his mother laughs and sends for the stranger, who is really Odysseus in disguise.

Which Old Testament prophet revives a dead boy who then sneezes seven times as he comes back to life?

Elisha stretches himself out on the Shunammite woman's son in the Second Book of Kings, and the seven sneezes are the first sign that the child is alive again.

Which Athenian general's soldiers took a comrade's sneeze during his speech in 401 BC as a favourable omen?

Xenophon was urging the stranded Greek army to fight its way out of Persia when a soldier sneezed, and the men bowed to the god at once, an episode he recorded himself in the Anabasis.

Which English king's doctors gave him cowslips and ammonia on his deathbed to make him sneeze?

Charles II was dosed with the mixture by his medical attendants, a detail recorded in a 1909 study of his last days, and it is not known whether it was meant as a treatment.

Which Russian writer's story The Death of a Government Clerk turns on a sneeze that lands on a general's head?

Anton Chekhov published it in 1883: the clerk apologizes so persistently that the general flies into a rage, and the mortified man goes home, lies down and dies.

In the Japanese anime The Genie Family, a sneeze summons the genie Hakushon, while what summons his daughter Akubi?

A yawn brings out Akubi, who must then serve whoever yawned, just as her father has to answer to whoever sneezed near the mysterious bottle the pair live in.

In Japan, where bystanders usually say nothing after a sneeze, the sneezer may offer a brief sumimasen, meaning what?

Excuse me is the sneezer's own apology, because in several East Asian cultures acknowledging someone else's sneeze can seem unnecessary or even slightly rude.

The usual French reply to a sneeze, à tes souhaits, translates literally as 'to your' what?

Wishes are what the French offer a sneezer, and the phrase has a partner, à tes amours, which means to your loves.

In Islamic tradition, a person who sneezes says Alhamdulillah, an Arabic phrase with which meaning?

Praise be to God is the sneezer's line, and a companion answers Yarhamuk Allah, may God have mercy on you, a custom based on a saying of Muhammad narrated by Abu Hurayrah.

Which comedian, known for a stage routine that built up to a huge sneeze, voiced Sneezy in Disney's Snow White?

Billy Gilbert had been doing the sneezing act since his burlesque days, so Walt Disney thought of him immediately when casting the 1937 film.