ASK TERRI #11: Snore Looser

From Mr. A Boat (nice try, buddy…)

So right, i was just flying along on qss chat, slagging off nini like usual, when suddenly! i sneezed. which got me thinking, can you sneeze while sleeping?! and if you do, does it wake you up? OR could you be sneeze the whole night and not actually realise? because you’re asleep! or maybe you have a dream about the sneezing instead, i dunno! and hence im asking you!

Yours patiently,
Mr A. Boat.

Well, since I too, would like to know, I went looking.
Now, while googleing it, there appears to be a lot of replies from the average person,
and being a cynic, decided to ask a DOCTOR, instead of listening to Joe Blow down the street.

This is Dr.
Amit Raina’s reply- oh, hes a nose and throat specialist, so I think he would know, right?

Here’s his reply:

Thats a good question.
Well the fact is that humans cannot sneeze while asleep.
Sneezing 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 pharyngeal region and the man sneezes thus. You must
know that this reflex is a natural means to protect our sensitive upper
respiratory tract from harmful influences 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,
no reflex is initiated and the man doesn’t sneeze.
You must also know that when the stimuli continues or crosses a particular
level, 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.
I think I’ve made it clear about the Mechanism and the reason that we
don’t sneeze when sleeping. If you have any further queries,feel free to ask
me at my E_mail address.

Dr.Amit Raina
amraina@hotmail.com

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