Loud and powerful sneezers, have you figured out a way to tame your sneezes?
I sneeze really loudly and powerful and often I can't control it. What makes it worse is, its often sprays a lot of saliva as well. I'm safe most of the time if I can get to my handkerchief or tissue in time. But there are times I have no other option but to let it out. Has anyone found a way to tame it and make it milder or easier to control.
That’s interesting. Never heard of this before. Gonna see if I’m actually able to next time I need to sneeze. I almost feel like the deep inhale before a sneeze is involuntary but we’ll see…
Edit : Just sneezed. There's a problem. Just as I'm about to sneeze I breath in. I'll need to use a lot of force in a short time to exhale any air. Am I doing it wrong?
I don't exhale, rather I just close off my airway to stop the big inhale. It sounds super uncomfortable to try exhaling at that point, but with some practice I have been able to stop the inhale and that mutes the sneeze considerably. Also, I can plug my nose when I feel it start to tickle and stop the sneeze entirely.
I find it insane that people somehow think they have to make that noise when they sneeze. It’s totally a learned and unnecessary behaviour. People who are born deaf don’t ever make that noise when they sneeze.
I never thought about sneezing 'culture' or it being learned behavior, but my neighbor is deaf from birth and he sneezes VERY different from what I know and hear around me, so that got me wondering.
I’ve literally thrown my back out trying to suppress sneezes. I gave up trying years ago, I’m a scream sneezer through and through. Dracula barely helps but at least it’s more sanitary.
That thing you see in cartoons where they stop sneezes by putting a finger under the nose? Never seemed to work for me at first, but it turns out, it does work - you just have to push up against your septum, hard. It can at least diminish the urge slightly and maybe help you delay the sneeze so you can time it more conveniently.
I once sneezed so hard while lying down that my sock flew off.
Like you, I use a handkerchief. If I'm wearing a T, I might instead lift up the collar and sneeze down the front of my shirt. More gross for me but more hygienic for everyone else around. The third option is to drop into a crouch and sneeze into my elbow between my knees, funnelling it towards the floor.
I would rather do one big sneeze than lots of little sneezes, though.
Apparently deaf from birth people don't make any noise when they sneeze, as they've not heard anybody else do it so don't know they "should".^[I heard this from years ago; don't know how true it is] I'm not a particularly loud sneezer but it strikes me as odd that any noise at all would be learned behaviour.
Some people do make a lot of noise though, to the point where I'm thinking that it can't all be involuntary.
For me it won't stop it, but pushing my tongue up and forward against my pallet and clenching my jaw will help contain the sneeze (and often also give the sinuses a good clear).
I sneeze loudly, and I'm pretty sure there is zero need to vocalize while sneezing. But I don't do it often enough to remember to practice reducing or eliminating vocalization, so it never changes.