This question is of great interest not only to us, but first of all to scientists who wanted to find out what would happen if you sneeze with your eyes open. Absolutely any living person on our planet sometimes sneezes, but few people have thought about why we close our eyes and what can happen if we sneeze with open ones. Let's start with the very process of sneezing, which can be called a defense mechanism of our respiratory system. When a person sneezes, there is a direct irritation of the trigeminal nerve, which is most directly involved in the process of innervation of our eye. If this nerve is in a calm state, then our eyes can be open, but at its slightest irritation, whether we like it or not, the eye reflexively closes. Therefore, such a curious question arises: what will happen if you sneeze with your eyes open? The whole clue lies in a complex mechanical process. And such a reaction of our body, one might say, protects us. In what way?
A hard-to-reach goal
If we imagine for a second the pressure and speed of the air we exhale, then the question is what will happen ifsneeze with your eyes open, will not occur again. The speed is almost 150 km per hour! And our eyes can simply not withstand such strong pressure and, as they say, “fly out” of their sockets! The fact, of course, is a kind of fantasy, but it has its own explanation. At the same time, there are always lovers of experiments and those who want to experience in their own skin what will happen if you sneeze with your eyes open. But here's the problem - it is extremely difficult to do this. It is possible to sneeze with your eyes open, but this requires conscious use of the central nervous system. And few people succeed. Since these critical situations are difficult to achieve, scientists give a number of additional reasons why we close our eyes when we sneeze. Knowing how complex we are, and understanding the purpose for which these mechanisms serve, we will no longer think about what will happen if we sneeze with our eyes open, and we will be glad that everything is happening as it should.
What explains the closing of the eyelids
Sneezing with your eyes open is quite difficult, because our nasal mucosa, eyeball, eyelids, and lacrimal glands are pierced through and through by the trigeminal nerve and its endings. If these endings are irritated, then all involuntary reactions occur in the form of blinking or sneezing. All such signals converge in one center - this is the medulla oblongata. Other centers responsible for sneezing and closing the eyelids are located nearby. If one center, for example, sneezing, is excited, then the neighboring one, by closing the eyelids, is automatically activated. This explains our reaction: sneezing, we begin to involuntarily close our eyes. A similar process underlies the mechanism of the light sneeze reflex. If a bright light enters our eyes, we not only close them, but we can also start sneezing involuntarily. As you can see, sneezing is a very complex and interesting mechanism.
