# If you sneeze with your eyes open, will they really pop out of your head?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-sneeze-with-your-eyes-open-will-they-really-pop-out-of-your-head/176475>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 21, 2003, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-sneeze-with-your-eyes-open-will-they-really-pop-out-of-your-head/176475 "2003-05-21T02:52:17Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![InLikeFlynn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f19dbf/32.png) [@InLikeFlynn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/InLikeFlynn)\
**Post date:** [May 21, 2003, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-sneeze-with-your-eyes-open-will-they-really-pop-out-of-your-head/176475/1 "2003-05-21T02:52:17Z")

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I don’t know if it’s even possible to manually keep your eyelids open due to the strong, lightning fast involuntary auto- motor response signals that the brain generates to prevent events as this from taking place but, is there any documented cases of this phenomenon actually happening?  
I can’t imagine that the eyeball would actually be dangling from the optic nerve out of its socket or anything that graphic but who knows? Unlikely but, Who Knows?  
A plausible outcome to me might be some possible damage to the optic nerve and or a detached retina but not much more than that.  
I can’t find any links on the web referring to this crazy topic but I assume that there has to be some info somewhere. Does any one have any dope proving or disproving this commonly held belief?

Thanks a lot,  
Popeye