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Sneezing? Bless You!
Is it possible to keep your eyes open when sneezing?
No. Your eyes automatically snap shut when you sneeze. It's a
reflex and there's no way to stop it. So don't worry about your
eyes popping out when you sneeze. Worry more about hitting the car in front of you when you have a sneezing fit while driving!
Can bright light cause you to sneeze?
Most definitely. There's even a name for it: the photic sneeze
reflex (basically, "sneeze caused by light"). Not everyone is
affected. Estimates range from one in every ten people to one in every four have this reflex, which is thought to be inherited
from your genes. Some research suggests the photic sneeze reflex may be caused by an accidental crossing of nerve signals involved in normal sneezing and pupil dilation. The reflex occurs only after a person has been adapted to the dark for at least five minutes, THEN exposed to bright light suddenly.
Bless You!
The custom of saying "Bless you" when someone sneezes was first used by ancients when they believed that breath was the essence of life, and when you sneeze a part of you life is escaping. Evil spirits rush into your body and occupy the empty space. By saying "God bless you" the speaker is protecting the sneezer from that spirits.
The first motion picture copyrighted in the United States showed a man in the act of sneezing.
The longest bout of sneezing recorded was by Donna Griffith. It began in January 1981 and continued until September 1983. It lasted for 978 days, and 4,687,514 gesundheits.
During the 6th Century, it was customary to congratulate people who sneezed because it was thought that they were
expelling evil from their bodies. During the great plague of Europe, the Pope passed a law to say "God bless you" to one who sneezed.
I am pretty sure that, if you will be quite honest, you will admit that a good rousing sneeze, one that tears open your collar and throws your hair into your eyes, is really one of life's sensational pleasures. ~Robert Benchley, "Hiccoughing Makes Us Fat," No Poems: or around the world backwards and sideways, 1932
