# Night sneezing **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 26, 1999, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/night-sneezing/2874 "1999-08-26T22:28:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 1999, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/night-sneezing/2874/1 "1999-08-26T22:28:00Z")
Someone _must_ of asked this before, but I didn’t find it in the SD archives or the SDMB archives, so here goes. How come my allergies don’t make me sneeze when I’m asleep? I’m guessing the pollen doesn’t take a rest at night, yet I’m not awakened by violent fits of sneezing either. I can’t imagine I’m sneezing and not realizing it in my slumber, so what gives? Not that I’m complaining… * * * “I guess it is possible for one person to make a difference, although most of the time they probably shouldn’t.” ---
**Author:** ![Montfort](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Montfort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Montfort)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 1999, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/night-sneezing/2874/2 "1999-08-26T22:50:00Z")
My completely uneducated stab-in-the-dark guess is that your body sort of shuts down and doesn’t do anything more than it needs to do during your unawake hours. I don’t ever recall hearing my girlfriend cough, either, as she slept. (This is my first ever post, be gentle to me). ---
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 1999, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/night-sneezing/2874/3 "1999-08-27T14:19:00Z")
I know coughing only happens when one is awake. Probably sneezing is too. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 1999, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/night-sneezing/2874/4 "1999-08-27T22:08:00Z")
Well… ummm… yeah… but my question is why? If pollen is bothering my body and throwing my immune system into a tizzy when I’m awake, why isn’t it doing so while I sleep? I’d hate to think my immune system clocks out when I hit the pillow. I can’t imagine that I’m breathing any less pollen. So what’s with the lack of raction? Should I just spend the summer months drunk and passed out as to avoid my allergies? * * * “I guess it is possible for one person to make a difference, although most of the time they probably shouldn’t.” ---
**Author:** ![eggo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c4cdca/32.png) [@eggo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eggo)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 1999, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/night-sneezing/2874/5 "1999-08-28T21:07:00Z")
actualy, my mom coughs quite alot without waking herself up. but one time i farted and it woke me up. ---
**Author:** ![Zyada](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zyada/32/3028_2.png) [@Zyada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zyada)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 1999, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/night-sneezing/2874/6 "1999-08-29T02:11:00Z")
WAG - Chemicals which put us to sleep inhibit sneezing. Don’t know if that is true, but I believe adrenalin is a very good sneeze suppresor. I was driving to work one day with a bad case of scratchy nose sneezing and nearly ran into another car. The resulting adrenalin flood stopped one sneeze in mid-tickle and I didn’t have any more problems that morning.