I don't get this.

If you sniff some pepper, or a hair in your nostril prickles the inside of your nose, your nose gets irritated and starts tingling, and then you know you're going to sneeze, and you breathe in, shut your eyes and sneeze. This seems to make sense, since your body is trying to expel the irritant, but why does almost all the air come out of your mouth and not out of your nose? A lot of people don't expel any air from their nose at all. My cat sneezes out of its nose, so why don't humans?

clop

Maybe you've got inflamed sinuses or something Go see your doctor.

But seriously you do force air out of your nose when you sneeze. What else is causing mucous to violently fly out of your nose at such high velocity?

The reason is because there is so much force that sometimes you have to open your mouth otherwise you could do yourself some damage. I have had a few occasions when I haven't opened my mouth when sneezing and it really hurts your nose. You also have to remember that breath comes up from your lungs which can be exhaled either through your nose or mouth.

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It mainly seems to come out of my nose.

Overpressure, I think. Your sinuses and nostrils don't have the bandwidth to handle that much air all at once.

That said, by the time I got to be a teenager, I had reached the conlusion that spraying stuff everywhere when sneezing indoors was extremely inconvenient and embarassing. And since the modern man doesn't make a habit of carrying a handkerchief with him wherever he goes... I developed and mastered a technique for stifling sneezes.

It seems to relieve the irritation that triggered the sneeze, but manifests as a mild spazm of the chest and throat. No air is expulsed.

And yes, if I do it wrong, it's incredibly painful. But that rarely happens anymore.

An interesting side effect is that when I'm outdoors, I take inordinate pleasure in actually sneezing.

well, apart from your nose, the other alternative doesn't bear thinking about!!

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