I’ll write a post on the fun I’m having in Boston when I get home tonight. For now, something interesting I finally figured out today.
I’ve always sneezed when a bright light shines in my eyes. It’s most noticeable when I leave a building and emerge into bright sunlight; seconds later I usually sneeze 2-3 times. Some people think I’m crazy when I tell them this, others have said it happens to them too. Well, I finally looked it up, and lo and behold, it’s a condition called the Photic Sneeze Reflex (PSR). Here’s a wikipedia article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photic_sneeze_reflex
Basically, the nerves for sneezing and the optic nerve are kind of crammed together and leak information…so bright lights, which overload your optic nerve, can “leak” into the sneeze reflex and cause you to sneeze. Turns out about 20% of the population has this condition, and one study said that 40% of light-sneezers had at least one light-sneezing parent (it also says “two nonsneezers never produced a sneezer”, which seems to contradict the 40%–it should be 100%). Mom or Dad, does this happen to you? How about anybody else in the family?
It’s just not fair that Auntie Sue got all my funny genes and left me with none.
That’s a different problem, where after you sneeze you rhyme for a few minutes.
I keep reading it “poetic sneeze reflex.”
Marshall, that has happened to me my entire life, I am very familiar with the condition. Go into bright sunlight, sneeze two/three/four times, that’s been the pattern since I was a child. Incidentally, this has happened lifelong to Grandma Miller as well. She has one additional quirk — if she scratches a particular place on her head, she sneezes.
Marshall, I have heard of this; our old friend Larry Brehm was subject to it and had investigated. In Mike’s family they don’t sneeze from bright light, but Mike, his siblings, and his late father all have/had sneezing spells that are quite dramatic. His sister’s are triggered by drafts, but the others seem to be random.
Keep your eye out for Randy; he lives in Somerville, near Porter and Davis Squares.
Thats interesting Marshall but I would like to hear about the fun you are having in Boston including all the lurid details.