Why Do We Sneeze When It's Bright?

We sneeze when it’s bright because our eyes get tickled by light, which makes our nose go “Whoa! What is that?!” and send out a sneeze.

When the sun comes up or a lamp turns on, light enters your eye through the pupil, like water going into a funnel. If it’s too bright, your eye says “Whoa! That’s a lot of light!” and sends a message to your brain.

Your brain gets the message and thinks something funny or unexpected is happening, maybe a tiny bug landed on your nose or you smelled something spicy. It calls out to your nose with a loud “Ahhh!” that makes it sneeze to get rid of what’s bothering it.

So even though there's no real bug or spice, your body still reacts like there is, and that’s why we sneeze when it's bright!