# "Photic sneeze reflex" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [September 13, 1999, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photic-sneeze-reflex/284 "1999-09-13T20:41:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![SavageNarce](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@SavageNarce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SavageNarce)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2003, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photic-sneeze-reflex/284/41 "2003-02-25T18:24:35Z")
Although PSR is a short term for this condition, it’s too easily lost in the alphabet soup of abbreviations that complicate our daily lives. The proper name for this reflex/condition, according to the medical dictionary at my public library, is “Photoptarmosis”. Beyond that, although I am subject to photoptarmosis, I also have a similar (possibly related) condition: theosmoptarmosis. I sneeze when I eat mint. A friend suggested that this might be the origin of the name “peppermint”, i.e. mint that makes you sneeze, the way pepper does. Any other mint sneezers out there? ---
**Author:** ![speckfisher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ac91a4/32.png) [@speckfisher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/speckfisher)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2003, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photic-sneeze-reflex/284/42 "2003-02-26T00:37:48Z")
Sneezes: Usually double. I can bring on a sneeze by looking at a very bright wall or an interior light. Eyes: Blue Migraines: Never, and I haven’t had more than a half-dozen headaches in my life, including hangovers. Internal Clock: I have always been an early riser (even as a teenager) - up and dressed before dawn. My father and maternal grandfather had PSR too. No sinus problems. My sneezes are never sudden. There is almost always 10-20 seconds between the “sneezy feeling” and the actual sneeze. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2003, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photic-sneeze-reflex/284/43 "2003-02-26T15:14:20Z")
[Cecil on open eyelids while sneezing.\*\* And for good measure, [url=http://www.straightdope.com/columns/010427.html]Will suppressing a sneeze give you a brain aneurysm?]([http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2\_304.html](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_304.html)) But this comment from the column got my attention: > [@](#): > > Once I get all the world’s other problems squared away, such as what Steve Miller was talking about when he sang “I speak of the pompatus of love,” I’ll get to the bottom of PSR. But Cecil did get the answer: [In Steve Miller’s “The Joker,” what is “the pompatus of love”?](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4_065.html) So, Cecil, we’re waiting for you to get back to PSR. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Swampwolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8edcca/32.png) [@Swampwolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swampwolf)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2003, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photic-sneeze-reflex/284/44 "2003-02-26T16:32:59Z")
Bah! Conjecture and obfuscation! The **real** reason for PSR has nothing to do with biology, heredity or the colour of your eyes…anything like that! It’s because of the light itself! As many people know, light is bith a wave and a [particle.](http://www.westga.edu/~chem/courses/xids/lectures/Light/sld001.htm) Obviously, when you go out into the light, the increased numbers of light particles, or “protons,” get up your nose and make you sneeze. Kinda like pepper. ---
**Author:** ![akrako1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@akrako1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/akrako1)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2003, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photic-sneeze-reflex/284/45 "2003-02-27T22:44:17Z")
Label me a PSR. Only one sneeze usually pops out. And pretty immediate upon the light stimulus. AFAIK, neither of my parents react in the same way. Maybe the trait can skip a generation like so many other traits? A little off topic but, I seem to remember that brain-chemically speaking, a sneeze was approx 1/4 of an orgasm. Maybe us PSRs are just extra talented! No site for this, just a fuzzy memory from college Psychology. Damn, I think they’re all a little fuzzy… ---
**Author:** ![akrako1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@akrako1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/akrako1)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2003, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photic-sneeze-reflex/284/46 "2003-02-27T22:47:38Z")
blessedwolf, I think maybe a few too many particles have went up your nose. Anyways, as far as I remember, light ‘particles’ don’t have any mass. How would a particle without any mass tickle your nose hairs enough to make you sneeze? ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2003, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photic-sneeze-reflex/284/47 "2003-03-05T14:00:48Z")
I sneeze when I go from dark areas to bright areas, usually once, but sometimes more. The larger the difference in light levels, the more quickly the sneeze will come on. I have brown eyes. One of my sisters and my father also sneeze from the sun or other light sources (brown eyes and hazel eyes). I also sometimes sneeze from mint – Clorets gum, for example, or Altoids. I find the eye-protection theory dubious – after I’ve sneezed, I can look at the sun all day long if I so desired. I don’t continue to sneeze. I think it’s just crossed nerves and reflexes. I don’t understand why people would complain about this – I agree with akrako1 about the brain-chemical effect. I really like to sneeze (a clean, sun-induced sneeze, not a messy, sickness-induced sneeze). It’s especially useful with sneeze-us interruptus – I can always use a bright light to “finish up”. ---
**Author:** ![BioHazard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3bc359/32.png) [@BioHazard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BioHazard)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2003, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photic-sneeze-reflex/284/48 "2003-03-05T20:10:44Z")
I am not a photo sneezer but I had a GF that was…well actually she was only a summer fling. Anyway, she sneezed any time she looked at the moon, or any time someone took her picture with a flash, but other bright lights didn’t effect her at all. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2003, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photic-sneeze-reflex/284/49 "2003-03-05T21:30:30Z")
…So you’re saying that she was a reverse vampire werewolf? ---
**Author:** ![mystic2311](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ccd318/32.png) [@mystic2311](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mystic2311)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2003, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photic-sneeze-reflex/284/50 "2003-03-08T18:45:15Z")
What about the post-orgasmic sneeze reflex? ---
**Author:** ![whiterabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/cab0a1/32.png) [@whiterabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whiterabbit)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2003, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photic-sneeze-reflex/284/51 "2003-03-09T16:00:36Z")
Eyes: brown Migraines: related to my hormones I usually sneeze two or three times. Never once. I got it from my mom. She does it too. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photic-sneeze-reflex/284.md?page=2)