Ah-choo What kind of sneezer are you?

[jtbell]

I'm at home with a cold today. I just had a major sneezing fit and am now sitting here a bit breathless, with my eyes watering, thinking about different kinds of sneezes.

My sneezes are huge and explosive. Usually they're solitary sneezes, sometimes bursts of up to five or six, very occasionally about ten (like just now). When they come in bursts, they're usually about 8-10 seconds apart. Five seconds is really fast for me.

My wife's sneezes are smaller, quicker, and almost always come in rapid-fire bursts of five, about one second apart. It's gotten to be a bit of a joke between us. When she stops at four, I wait a few seconds, then look over at her with a questioning expression on my face, and she rolls her eyes and shrugs.

What other kinds of sneezes are there?

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

Is it common to sneeze several times every day? I don't have a cold, I just sneeze. I think that the mucus in my nasal passages irritates the nerve endings and sends a signal to sneeze. They normally come in pairs for me although 5 or 6 at a time can happen. When I have a cold then 10 is about right. I sneeze with my mouth open and direct the force through my mouth in order to prevent too much pressure building up in my nasal passages. This tends to amplify the sound.

 

[Astronuc]

I have to issue a strong wind advisory.

Actually use a tissue or paper towel or handkerchief to cover my mouth, or my sleeve if I don't have a tissue or towel.

 

[Dembadon]

I hold my sneezes in.

 

[rhody]

What other kinds of sneezes are there?

I feel you and your wife's pain JT, I have a case of shingles, and the night I had the outbreak, I had runny nose, obviously, and then in the course of three hours I must have sneezed at least 200 times. I am not kidding. The explosive type. I was able to circumvent the sneezing, (don't laugh this works) by grabbing my lower lip with my thumb and index finger gently squeezing and shaking it, the longer I squeezed and shook, the longer relief I got between the buildup and release of histamine which caused me to sneeze.

Other people have tried this method, it really works, somehow the brain's autonomic cycle is interrupted, redirected if you will when you do this. I felt stupid after awhile playing lip tag, but I swear it works.

We have one guy in our office who when he sneezes sets off car alarms. Only kidding, but he is loud and will startle you and make you jump.

Rhody...

 

[rhody]

I hold my sneezes in.

That is not good Dembadon, you will explode , my wife does it too, and I laugh every time she does.

Rhody...

 

[turbo]

Usually, I can get over it with a single explosive sneeze. Loud and sharp enough to jump my wife and scare Duke, sometimes, but he's getting used to me. Last night he had a sneezing fit that had my wife in wonder. Several multiple-sneezes in a row, with him shaking his head and running his nose over his bed.

 

[jtbell]

I hold my sneezes in.

When I try to do that, it comes out the other end.

 

[rhody]

When I try to do that, it comes out the other end.

I was thinking that JT, but I am glad you said it, in the end (pun intended), hehe...

Rhody...

 

[drizzle]

I hold my sneezes in.

I can never hold it.

 

[turbo]

When I try to do that, it comes out the other end.

I'm glad Duke didn't hold in his sneezing fit last night. Sneezes don't smell bad.

 

[genericusrnme]

I hold my sneezes in.

I try and do this
When I sneeze it feels like I'm ripping my vocal chords out and it hurts for a good 5/10 minutes after..
It never use to be like that, I have no idea what happened in the past 2 years lol

 

[rootX]

some girls sneeze like little puppies :!)

 

[turbo]

some girls sneeze like little puppies :!)

My cousin's daughter does this. She is a tiny little thing that gets carded everywhere she goes. 30+ years old and can't buy a drink without an ID. If she had to sneeze, it would come out like "shoo".

 

[Borek]

Single, sometimes double. Very rarely more. Sometimes strong enough to rupture something in my chest. I was told by a doc once that it is not unheard of - violent sneeze can end with a pneumothorax

 

[Moonbear]

I have two types of sneezes. There are the random ones that don't have any apparent cause. They're small and usually single or double, and I can silence them pretty well. Then there are the ones from something obvious that irritated my nose...dust, smoke, strong perfume, etc. Those are the big ones that can't be silenced and come in bursts of 3 or 4.

 

[Dembadon]

That is not good Dembadon, you will explode , my wife does it too, and I laugh every time she does.

Rhody...

I've seen pictures of what comes out of someone's mouth when they sneeze.

 

[checkitagain]

1) I don't recommend holding in a sneeze. It's dangerous.

2) As far as sneezing, three should be the limit, one right after the other.
To get around this limit, sneeze twice, and then force yourself to wait at
least one minute before sneezing twice again.

(This works on the same principle as a group of 14 people going to a
restaurant and having 2 sets of 7 people sitting at different parts of
the restaurant so that the members of the group are not charged a
forced percent "gratuity" on 8 or more people in one party.

3) I will deliberately look up at the Sun to help me sneeze.

4) Has anyone experienced simultaneous sneezing, burping, hiccupping,
coughing, and passing gas?

5) Have you (or someone you know) ever mistaken a sneeze for a
cough, or the other way around?

6) Should an Atheist be annoyed if someone says "Bless you" or
"God bless you" to him or her?

7) A person might fake a sneeze to see if someone they're interested
in would say something back to them.

 

[Dembadon]

1) I don't recommend holding in a sneeze. It's dangerous.

...

How dangerous?

 

[Borek]

I don't recommend holding in a sneeze.

sneeze twice, and then force yourself to wait

Check it again, as it doesn't make sense.

Holding is dangerous, but it should be done to not sneeze more that twice?

 

[checkitagain]

Check it again, as it doesn't make sense.

Holding is dangerous, but it should be done to not sneeze more that twice?

No, my line was not meant to be taken seriously.
It's just that I get annoyed with multiple sneezings
in relative close proximity of times.
Of course, sneeze as many times in a row to help yourself.


@ Dembadon, when you confine an "explosion" inside the
body, then you are putting too much pressure elsewhere.
At least a sneeze that is let out through the mouth has
reduced the pressure and strain on the inside of the body.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

When I try to do that, it comes out the other end.

Sometimes it comes out both ends at once.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqjNzFPnPew

 

[nobahar]

No, my line was not meant to be taken seriously.
It's just that I get annoyed with multiple sneezings
in relative close proximity of times.
Of course, sneeze as many times in a row to help yourself.


@ Dembadon, when you confine an "explosion" inside the
body, then you are putting too much pressure elsewhere.
At least a sneeze that is let out through the mouth has
reduced the pressure and strain on the insdie of the body.

I'm trying to figure out the metre.

 

[jtbell]

Sometimes strong enough to rupture something in my chest. I was told by a doc once that it is not unheard of - violent sneeze can end with a pneumothorax

I haven't gone that far myself, but all that sneezing does strain my chest. Now that my cold has moved down from my nose into my throat, I've been coughing more than sneezing, and when I do that, my chest aches.

Another thing I noticed while I was in my "sneezing phase:" I've been spending a lot of time in a reclining chair with my legs up, watching TV or reading or listening to music. When I sneeze in the recliner, my legs rise up a few inches, in addition to my torso lurching forwards a bit.

 

[OmCheeto]

How dangerous?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDydSrIpZTY


ps. Half of my lung contents are expelled when I sneeze. (ie. setting off car alarm type)

On a somewhat related side note, someone once told me that I sounded like a Canadian Goose when I blow my nose. I always thought it sounded more like Harpo Marx's bulb horn myself.

 

[Jimmy]

Half of my lung contents are expelled when I sneeze. (ie. setting off car alarm type)

I usually sneeze in threes and then neighborhood dogs start barking.

 

[mishrashubham]

Whenever I get non-cold sneezes, I let the irritating object go away in a few long breaths instead of one loud sneeze. Of course Ineed to fight against the urge to let go and sometimes I give in at the last moment and then it becomes embarrassing.

 

[Adyssa]

I sneeze explosively, and usually only once. It will build up for a good 5 seconds and I kind of convulse and have to shake my head a bit to regain composure.

The post-sneeze euphoria (maybe that is too strong of word) is very cool I think, I feel refreshed and alive!

 

[Dembadon]

...

@ Dembadon, when you confine an "explosion" inside the
body, then you are putting too much pressure elsewhere.
At least a sneeze that is let out through the mouth has
reduced the pressure and strain on the inside of the body.

I understand the qualitative reasoning behind holding-in a sneeze, but that doesn't answer how dangerous it is to suppress a sneeze.

I did some poking around on and found that it can cause some undesirable results, but what I couldn't find were any data indicating how likely said results are to occur and under what conditions; I'd assume someone with a cold would be more susceptible to damage due to the increased pressure inside their nasal regions.

 

[S_Happens]

I almost always sneeze in pairs and very loudly. I try to keep it down when I'm in class, but it doesn't work very well.

I used to sneeze 15-20 (pairs) times a day. It wasn't anything terribly annoying (to me) or what I would have considered to be a reaction to anything in particular. I started immunotherapy last year due to my severe hay fever (ragweed) and I hardly sneeze at all anymore unless I'm reacting to something. Hopefully this fall will be much better.