Placeholder Image

Subtitles section Play video

  • Hey there Head Squeezers, I hope you're well. So you sent in a whole load of eye related

  • questions to me before. I've looked at eye bags, eyebrows and here's another eye popping

  • question for you now. It was sent in my hugessfan on YouTube who asks Why do we close our eyes

  • when we sneeze? Now first of all lets debunk an old school myth. If you sneeze with your

  • eyes open your eyes do not pop out on springs like you see in the cartoons. That will not

  • happen! Alight? OK? Ok, goo. Now sneezing is involuntary.

  • When you are struck down by the common cold or man flu as we like to call it your nasal

  • cavity is more swollen and more sensitive and any irritation will cause you to sneeze.

  • Something like pollen, or dust, or even fur from your mate's cat, if it gets up your nose.

  • To get technical, an irritant when it contacts the nasal mucosa it triggers the trigeminal

  • nerve, which sends a signal to your brain which goes to the lower part of your brain

  • known as the medulla. And then you know what happens the chest expands,

  • your lungs fill with air, and achoo, you sneeze snot everywhere. And James did a really good

  • film on where snot comes from, I'll put a link to that at the end of this one. But get

  • this, you sneeze out over 5000 droplets of mucus and air at speeds up to 100 miles an

  • hour. But of course you will all that high octane action because your eye lids actually

  • pull down your curtains. But why do you sneeze? It's one of science's

  • big mysteries. We think it's an involuntary response just like if you get tapped just

  • under your knee cap your leg goes flying up. So what could be causing it? Well you could

  • be shutting your eyelids because as you sneeze out the germs and bacteria they don't fall

  • on your eyes. Or maybe your eyelids shut down because they're one of a series of muscles

  • that tighten because of that involuntary response. Some people's eyes do actually stay open,

  • if you're one of those people then please do let me know in the comments below this

  • video, or indeed, if you know of anyone. That's all the time I've got right now. Please do

  • keep sending me in your questions on twitter, on facebook, or in the comments below. Until

  • next time happy head sneezing, head squeezing.

Hey there Head Squeezers, I hope you're well. So you sent in a whole load of eye related

Subtitles and vocabulary

Click the word to look it up Click the word to find further inforamtion about it