Why Am I Sneezing so Loud?
When a flying dust particle or a wayward grain of pollen enters my sinuses, there is a predictable physiological response: I scream bloody murder through my nose in the form of a massive cacophonic sneeze.
The lights flicker and my cats run as the nasal tidal wave breaks out in a burst of sonic chaos. My wife thinks I’m melodramatic; I usually insist that my audible sneezes are involuntary and completely beyond physical control.
But who is right? Loud sneezes coexist with their more low-key counterparts, whose dainty little flip flops have all the grace and composure of a ballerina. Are my whiplash-causing nasal blasts a product of my personality, or are they a cruel consequence of my genetic makeup?
Fortunately, all of these questions are fairly easy to answer. Let’s dispel the myths about some of the common ideas about loud sneezing.
First of all, what is sneezing?
A fantastic question that is probably overlooked when people tackle life’s much more important problems. Live Science described this phenomenon quite vividly back in 2010:
It all starts with a tickling nose. Something, maybe dust or a particle of pollen, irritates the mucous membrane of the upper respiratory tract and causes the nerves to ring. Nerves send a signal to the most primitive part of the brain, the brain stem, which goes into action, forcing the lungs to take deep breaths. The vocal cords close, the eyes close, and air bursts out of the mouth and nose: ahhh !
Every sneeze is different
Add sneezing to the grand pantheon of completely idiosyncratic bodily functions, because no two sneezes are exactly the same. This is a personal quirk along with laughter, farting, and belching.
As Alan Hirsch, a neurologist, psychiatrist and founder of the Chicago Smell and Taste Research Foundation, told NBC News in 2013 :
Sneezing is like laughing. Someone [laughs] loudly, someone quietly. It’s the same with sneezing. From adolescence, it often sounds the same as before.
Your sneezing style is at least partly physical.
Many people in my life have attributed my mortar sneezes to a disgusting need for attention, but they turned out to be only partly right.
As Erich Voigt, otolaryngologist and clinical assistant professor of otolaryngology at New York University Medical Center at Langon Refinery 29, said in 2017 : “Sneezing is a very strong reflex that clears the upper airway and is often spontaneous and involuntary, so we cannot control strength. … “
According to Voigt, the volume and speed of your sneeze depends to some extent on the size of their body and muscles, but most importantly, it is the result of whether the pressure wave is coming out of the nose or mouth.
The doctor explained:
Some people allow the force to sneeze through their nose, while others allow the force to come out through their mouth, and for some through their nose and mouth. Each of these types will emit different noises.
There is more about the relationship between sneezing, body and sneezing volume. Professor Richard Harvey of Australia’s University of St. Vincent and Macquarie Hospitals explained to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation last year that “the volume of a person’s sneeze depends on their lung capacity, size, and how long they hold their breath.”
Sneezing is also a reflection of personality.
If you sneeze loudly, this is what your ill-wishers will grab onto. This is the hill on which they will die, if they are not consigned to oblivion in advance by a deadly sneeze.
As Dr. Hirsch explained to NBC, “The volume of a sneeze is ‘more of a psychological thing and represents the underlying personality or character structure’ of the person sneezing.
In the end, you may not be able to control the exact amount of air you draw in before sneezing, or how long you hold your breath, but ultimately you can make choices that can reduce the amount you sneeze. Dr. Harvey from Australia explained that the mouth ultimately allows the sneeze to be louder and the nose tends to suppress noise: “If you sneeze through your mouth, it will be louder, but if you sneeze through your nose, it will be wetter and dirtier.”
However, it is important not to interfere with sneezing. Pinching your mouth and nose while sneezing can lead to serious medical conditions such as brain aneurysms and ruptured eardrums.
So if someone is bothering you by sneezing loudly, ask them to deal with it. Surrendering to racketeering seems much more sensible than asking someone to suppress a sneeze, which could lead to hospitalization.