Why Do We Sneeze?
Reviewed: Dr. Gromatzky
6. Sunlight
It is a fairly common phenomenon that looking into bright light will cause some people to sneeze. The technical medical term for the phenomenon is a photic sneeze reflex. Despite research into the phenomenon, we are still not completely sure of why this happens, but we do have some plausible ideas of what is behind it.
One plausible explanation is a crossing of the wiring of the central nervous system. When looking into a bright light, our pupils will automatically constrict to protect our eyes. It is possible that this crossed wiring means the reflex of constricting pupils also causes us to sneeze.
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