The fastest way to make yourself sneeze is to gently tickle the inside of your nostril with the tip of a rolled-up tissue. This directly stimulates the nerve responsible for triggering sneezes, and it works for most people within seconds. But if that doesn’t do the trick, several other methods tap into the same reflex through different pathways.
Why These Methods Work
Sneezing is controlled by the trigeminal nerve, a large nerve that branches across your face, nose, and forehead. Anything that irritates the nerve endings inside your nasal lining sends a signal to your brain’s “sneeze center,” which then fires off the explosive response to clear the irritant. The methods below all work by activating this same pathway, either through physical touch, chemical irritation, or light.
Tickle the Inside of Your Nose
Roll the corner of a tissue into a thin point and gently insert it into one nostril. Wiggle it lightly against the inner wall of your nose. This mimics the sensation of a foreign particle landing on your nasal lining, and your brain responds by triggering a sneeze to expel it. A clean feather works the same way.
Be gentle. You’re aiming for a light tickle, not deep insertion. Never use sharp objects like bobby pins, pen caps, or cotton swab sticks, which can cause bleeding or damage to the delicate tissue inside your nose.
Use Black Pepper or Spices
Black pepper contains a compound called piperine that directly irritates the mucous membrane inside your nose. Waving an open pepper shaker near your nose (not directly sniffing it) lets a few particles drift into your nasal passages and trigger the reflex. White and green pepper contain piperine too.
Other spices that work as nasal irritants include cumin, coriander, and crushed red pepper. Hot peppers contain capsaicin, which irritates nasal tissue through a slightly different mechanism but produces the same result. The goal is to inhale just enough to tickle, not enough to cause a burning sensation or a coughing fit.
Look at a Bright Light
If you’ve ever walked outside on a sunny day and immediately sneezed, you may have what’s known as the photic sneeze reflex. Somewhere between 15% and 30% of people have this trait. It’s a dominant genetic trait, so if one of your biological parents has it, you have a 50% chance of inheriting it.
To test whether this works for you, step from a dim room into bright sunlight or look toward (not directly at) a bright light. If you’re a photic sneezer, the sneeze usually comes within a few seconds. If nothing happens after a couple of tries, this method likely won’t work for you, and no amount of practice will change that.
Sniff a Strong Scent
Strong perfumes, colognes, and certain essential oils can irritate the nasal lining enough to produce a sneeze. The more pungent the scent, the more likely it is to work. You can also try sniffing the fizz rising from a freshly opened carbonated drink. Your nose is more sensitive than your tongue to carbon dioxide, and inhaling the bubbles from soda or sparkling water can trigger the reflex.
Pluck an Eyebrow Hair
This one catches people off guard, but it has a straightforward explanation. Your nose and your eyebrows are served by the same branch of the trigeminal nerve. When you pluck a hair from your eyebrow, the sharp pain signal travels along that nerve branch, and the irritation can cross over to trigger a sneeze. It doesn’t work for everyone, but for those it does work for, it’s reliable and repeatable.
Breathe Cold Air
Sudden exposure to cold air can stimulate the receptors inside your nose and trigger a sneeze. If you have access to a freezer, open the door and take a deep breath through your nose. The rapid temperature change is what matters here. Moving from a warm room to cold outdoor air can have the same effect. This method is less predictable than physical or chemical irritation, but it’s worth trying if other approaches aren’t available.
What Not to Do
If you’re trying to sneeze to relieve pressure or that maddening “almost sneeze” feeling, avoid putting water up your nose using tap water. The CDC has documented rare but fatal brain infections caused by amoebas found in tap and faucet water that entered the nasal passages. If you ever do rinse your sinuses for any reason, use distilled, sterile, or previously boiled water only.
Also worth knowing: once you do sneeze, let it out. Holding in a sneeze traps pressure in your respiratory system and can force air and mucus into your ear canal through the tube connecting your nose to your middle ear. This can damage your eardrum, cause ear infections, push irritants back into your sinuses, temporarily spike pressure inside your eyes, and in extreme cases, rupture blood vessels in your head or neck. The whole point of a sneeze is to release pressure and clear irritants, so let it do its job.
When Sneezing Happens on Its Own
Some people sneeze uncontrollably after eating a large meal, a phenomenon called snatiation. It appears to be genetic and is triggered by a completely full stomach rather than any specific food. It doesn’t cause health problems, but if you’ve noticed this pattern, you’re not imagining it.