A sneeze that feels stuck can be surprisingly frustrating. The sensation builds, your eyes water, your breath catches, and then nothing happens. The good news is that sneezing is a reflex, and like most reflexes, it can be nudged along with the right stimulus. Several simple tricks tap into the same nerve pathways your body uses naturally to trigger a sneeze.
Why Sneezes Get Stuck
A sneeze starts when something irritates the lining of your nose, sending a signal through the trigeminal nerve to your brainstem. Your brainstem then coordinates a whole-body response: your chest muscles tighten, your eyes close, and air blasts out at high speed. When a sneeze feels stuck, the initial irritation was strong enough to start the process but not quite strong enough to push it over the threshold. The reflex stalls partway through, leaving you in an uncomfortable limbo. The tricks below work by adding just enough extra stimulation to complete the circuit.
Look at a Bright Light
If you’ve ever walked outside on a sunny day and immediately sneezed, you’ve experienced the photic sneeze reflex. Somewhere between 15% and 30% of people have this trait, which appears to be genetic. It works because of crossed wiring in the trigeminal nerve, the large facial nerve that branches to both your eyes and your nose. When bright light hits your eyes and your pupils constrict, the signal spills over into the nasal branch of the same nerve, triggering a sneeze.
To use this deliberately, look toward a bright light source (not directly at the sun) when you feel a sneeze building. A lamp, a window, or even your phone’s flashlight can work. If you’re not one of the people wired for this reflex, bright light won’t help, but it’s worth trying since there’s no way to know your status except by testing it.
Tickle the Inside of Your Nose
The most direct approach is to stimulate the nasal lining itself. Roll the corner of a tissue into a thin point and gently twist it just inside one nostril. You’re activating the same sensory nerve endings that dust and pollen trigger naturally. Move the tissue lightly against the inner wall of your nostril until you feel the reflex kick in. A cotton swab works too, though a tissue tip is softer and less likely to irritate delicate tissue if you’re too aggressive.
Use a Strong Scent or Spice
Certain chemical compounds are almost guaranteed to irritate nasal receptors. Capsaicin, the compound that makes chili peppers hot, and piperine, the irritant in black pepper, both activate pain-sensing nerve cells in the nose. You don’t need to inhale a cloud of pepper. Simply opening a jar of ground black pepper or crushed red pepper flakes and sniffing gently near it is usually enough to push a stalled sneeze through. Strong scents like peppermint oil or even the fizz from a carbonated drink can have a similar effect. The carbon dioxide in sparkling water activates the same general pain sensors in the nose and mouth that respond to mustard and other irritants.
Pluck an Eyebrow Hair
This one catches people off guard, but it’s grounded in anatomy. Your eyebrows and your nose are served by the same branch of the trigeminal nerve. When you pluck a hair from the brow area, the sharp pain signal travels along that nerve and can cross-activate the sneeze reflex in the nasal branch. If you feel a sneeze hovering, plucking a single eyebrow hair with tweezers (or even just pinching and tugging at the hairs with your fingers) can be enough to set it off.
Breathe Cold Air
Sudden exposure to cold air stimulates the temperature-sensitive receptors inside your nose, which can trigger the sneeze reflex. Opening a freezer and leaning your face toward the cold air is one of the easiest ways to try this. You can also breathe in sharply through your nose while standing in front of an air conditioning vent. The key is the suddenness of the temperature change, not the cold itself. Moving quickly from a warm room to cold outdoor air works on the same principle.
Hum or Tilt Your Head Back
Some people find that tilting the head back slightly while breathing in through the nose helps a stuck sneeze along. The position may change how air flows across the nasal lining, increasing stimulation to irritated areas. Humming can vibrate the tissues of the nasal passages enough to amplify a weak signal. Neither of these is as reliable as direct nasal irritation or bright light, but they’re easy to combine with other methods when a sneeze is close but won’t quite arrive.
What Not to Do
Once a sneeze does start, let it happen. Stifling a sneeze by pinching your nose shut or clamping your mouth closed traps the pressure that would normally escape. That trapped force can push infected mucus back into the tubes connecting your nose to your middle ear, potentially causing an ear infection. In some cases, middle ear infections from this kind of pressure lead to eardrum damage that requires surgical repair. Holding in a sneeze can also push irritants and mucus back into your sinuses, setting the stage for sinus congestion and infections. In rare, extreme cases, the trapped pressure has ruptured small blood vessels in the head or neck.
The risks of forcing a sneeze out are much lower than the risks of holding one in, but be gentle with nasal stimulation. Shoving objects too far into your nose or inhaling large amounts of pepper can cause irritation, nosebleeds, or coughing fits that are far worse than the original stuck sneeze. A light touch is all the reflex needs.