Sometimes I have a stuffy nose, but this is noticeable when I don’t have one too. As soon as I sneeze, almost whatever stuffiness I had in my nose prior to the sneeze is gone and I can take a deep breath through my nose. Its not that I blow the snot out, it could be just a normal, non-snot sneeze. Why does this happen? What’s going on here?
Well, the first thing to realize is that stopped up sinuses are not necessarily full. What makes them feel stopped up is an inflamed blood vessel, which blocks off the sinuses to outside air. Snot only pools up there because the sinuses are blocked–it doesn’t directly cause the blockage. (Note that the snot may have something in it that is keeping the vessel inflamed.)
Taking this information, I would make an educated guess that the sneeze merely removes whatever is irritating the nose and causing the blood vessel to block things off. Futhermore, it’s possible that the sneeze moves the blood vessel over a bit so that it doesn’t quite block anything, in the same way that popping your ears can make your ears no longer feel clogged.
Hmm that makes sense. When my sinuses are stuffed up, oftentimes I can blow my nose and nothing really comes out. If there’s a ton of snot, they are clinging to dear life in there