why do you close your eyes when you sneeze?
98543
Some people can sneeze with their eyes open and some people can’t. Sneezing is a reflex and so is closing our eyes. We have no control over whether or not we close our eyes when we sneeze. Some people don’t have reflex, so when they sneeze then their eyes won’t close. Some people try to close their eyes so when they sneeze their eyes won’t pop out. Your eyes don’t really pop out. People without the reflex to sneeze with their eyes open can try to train themselves to sneeze with their eyes open. One good way to do this is if when you sneeze you hold your eyes open.\n\n    People think that when you close your eyes when you sneeze that you are blocking germs and bacteria. That is not true because your eyes deal with germs all the time. If you close your eyes during a sneeze, then it is just a reflex. During this part of the sneeze, we tense some of our muscles. The tensing (tightening) of our muscles causes our eyes to shut.\n\n    People that sneeze a lot can prevent sneezing. If you feel a sneeze, then use saline solution. You can also softly hold your nose at the end. These things can help your body remove things it does not want without sneezing.\n\n    No one knows the reason you close your eyes when you sneeze. There are many possibilities. Some people think it is to protect your eyes from flying goop. Most doctors think that it is still a reflex, or we just can’t help it.\n\n    Sneezing is very good for you and your body because it removes things from your body like bacteria and germs. It also is good because it keeps the tubes that carry the air from your nose to the lungs healthy. Sneezing makes your nose clear when you have a cold. If you used to hate sneezing, then I hope this has changed your mind.
106896
Why would you want to?\nYou would be better off sneezing into a hanky than to attempt to stop yourself from sneezing.
760689
If you did manage to sneeze with your eyes open, your eyes would pop out of your head.   Er, no. As discussed above, some people do manage to sneeze with their eyes open, and they don't go blind from it. Eye sockets are made of bone, they aren't connected to the nasal passages, and there are no muscles behind the eyes that contract when you sneeze, so there's really no mechanism involved in a sneeze that could force your eyes out of their sockets. Even if there were, human eyelids aren't particularly strong, so simply closing your eyes during a sneeze wouldn't be sufficient to keep them in their sockets if a sneeze truly had enough power to dislodge them. (In any case, some people — due to circumstances such as birth defects or injury — do not have eyelids. Were the "eye-popping" rumor true, all of those people would have to spend their lives in constant mortal fear of sneezing.)
1034537
I don't know?..But next time I sneeze I will definitely try to keep my eyes open!...lol..let ya know then...
925113
Well the fact is that humans cannot sneeze while asleep.\nSneezing requires a reflex mechanism, wherein the sensory nerves in our upper respiratory tract, esp nostrils, are stimulated by some stimuli (mechanical or chemical or other)and these nerves then go to the CNS (i.e brain) and as a final process excite the nerves which supply muscles pf our respiration and the pharngeal region and the man sneezes thus. You must \nknow that this reflex is a natural means to protect our sensitive upper respiratory tract from harmful influnces or, more appropriately, external influences, be it a solid or a gas or as a response to some infection. Now when the man sleeps, his brain is not working at its normal levels and so even though the man's nerves have some external factor acting upon them,\nno reflex is initiated and the man doesn't sneeze. You must also know that when the stimuli continues or crosses a particular \nlevel, it changes from an irritative agent to a source of maybe say pain and the the man can have a disturbed sleep; there is a threshold for every thing.
297698
Sneezing is a reflex action intended for you to relieve somtehing from your air ways.  If the reflex is caused by a strong agent (such as pepper) you can bet that thinking won´t help.  On the other hand, if the agent causing the reflex is not very strong, thinking about anything will make it stop.
178849
The actual reason is to combat the pressure build up in your sinuses. \nSneezing releases alot of force.\nYour eyes are linked to your sinuses, and well - you wouldn't want to blast them out of your head now would you?
913830
its possible that when you sneeze, your eyes close reflexively, to prevent your eyes from getting contaminated by whatever is coming out of your nose and mouth.  As well, the urge to sneeze (that tingling feeling in your nose) may play a part, due to the optic nerves for your eyes laying close to the nerves for your nose and recieveing some residual signal...
309689
it helps prevent (doesnt completely block) the germs from flying over the entire room or onto other people around you, but do know that if you dont wash your hands right after sneezing you are spreading the germs that are then on your hand.  it is reccomended to sneeze into a tissue or a handkerchief to prevent the spreading of germs.
1008079
Because the pressure of the sneeze, you close your eyes. You can't control them because its something the body controls. Try holding your nose or biting your tongue though if you're about to sneeze. Then you don't.
419888
hey read these scientific reasons why do people bless them:\n1- when you are sneezing the heart stop within it\n2- the sneeze's speed is 100 km&#92;h\n3- if you are sneezing hard maybe you will broke one rib of your body ribs\n4- if you block the sneeze maybe will happen blood throwback in the neck or the head then that will be your death\n5- if you lift your eyes opened within sneezing maybe they will be out of them place\n6- and for your knowledge :\n   within the sneeze all organ of body stop although the time of the sneeze a second or part of second\nthen if god (Allah ) wants you to live,he will let our organ work after stopped \nquestion to you : if don't believe in spirit what the thing let you live ,think and distinguish you from the animals?
750600
A sneeze is a reflex that you can do even during sleep but considering you are sleeping you yourself won't know that you had sneezed while asleep, perhaps another person around could tell you or perhaps you can keep a recorder running while you are asleep to know. Anyway, if you sneeze while asleep I believe it will be a reasonable cause for you to awake so in that case you sneezed and you know you did but not in a sleeping situation anymore.♥
389251
I don't think so, and I've never heard this before.  I have heard that your heart stops momentarily when you sneeze though.
59078
Many people thought that sneeze is impolite, it's true if you do it on purpose. But it is natural and it is good because when you sneeze bacteria that try to come inside your lung will come out. Try to cover your mouth and nose when you feel, you will sneeze.
640985
Sneezing helps u to remove an irritation from your nose.It is more of a response than a voluntary action. Like all other involuntary actions in our body sneezing also involves a lot of muscles. Some of these muscles may be involved in the closing of the eye lids. Being an involuntary action we are unable to keep our eyes open when sneezing. \nHowever we do find yogis who have control on many of their muscles - may be they will be in a better position to keep their eyes open when sneezing.\n\nOn the lighter side - what do you really expect to see when u are sneezing!!!!!
480335
it is not possible looking normal or funny your eyes automatically close when you sneeze because your muscles contract
190467
Sneezing is actually a reflex action to a stimuli.The nerves send the message to the brain and then you sneeze. During sleep the reflex part of your brain rests too. The irritant still annoys the nerves but  no message is sent to the brain. However if the stimuli builds the irritant to  a level registered as pain the brain will wake you and you will sneeze (but to have this part of your brain working  you need to be awake!!)Scientific Fact! :)