Question: Is it true that you can't open your eyes when you sneeze?
Or is this just some kind of urban myth? Medics?

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asked by Baobab2090 in sneeze, eyes, open
Rank: Kurt GödelQuestion ID: 714credits: 15closed on: 02/27/2006 09:06am
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helpfulBabybio77 | Rank: Student (0)
40 hours after the question was opened (02/26/2006 12:13am)
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If you sneeze with your eyes open, do your eyes pop out? This is one of those old-school urban myths that every child has heard at one time or another. When you sneeze, water droplets fly out of your mouth at an explosive 200 miles-per-hour so it's not that much of a stretch to think that if you kept your eyes open, they might pop out of your skull.

If this were possible, it would make life very interesting, but it's an urban myth. Our eyes are actually very secure in their sockets and, as the sockets are made out of bone and not connected to your nasal passages, the pressure of a sneeze does not affect them. For the eye to pop out there would have to be a muscle behind the eyes that contracted when you sneeze. The only muscles in the eyes are positioned at the front of the socket--and those are firmly holding your eyeballs in place. It's also almost impossible to hold you eyelids open while you sneeze. They snap shut by reflex. This gives people the impression that your body is reacting to the sneeze by doing its best to keep your eyes firmly in place. In actuality, the reflex serves no purpose. It's just the way you're wired. The nerves serving the eyes and the nose are closely intertwined, and stimuli to one often trigger a response in the other. But you're better off worrying about what might be shooting out your nose than off your face.


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sneeze eyes open myth urban

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Yeah your eyes won't pop out, they bulge out a little bit but won't actually come out of your, however according to one unfortunate individual, if you do have your eyes open when you sneeze although its pretty much impossible, you can, and I quote, "break the blood vessels in your eyes thus turning your eyes blood red and having them sore for a week or two...yuck. I know this because it happened to me."