The reason people can't sneeze while sleeping

Sleep has special mechanisms that prevent people from sneezing while sleeping.

People can't seem to sneeze while sleeping. (Photo: Science ABC.)

So far no research has published whether we sneeze during sleep. Instead, physiologists and many sleep researchers try to answer this question based on understanding how the brain and body work while we sleep, according to Popular Science.

" I have studied hundreds of sleepers, but have never seen anyone sneeze during sleep, " said Steven Shea, sleep researcher at Oregon Medical University.

Shea recalled a story showing that the theory that humans cannot sneeze while sleeping may be true. He once witnessed a boy with a chronic cough, after about 10-15 seconds coughing once. However, the puzzling thing is that this boy completely stopped coughing when he fell asleep.

According to Shea, when we are in bed we often come in contact with a few things that can make us sneeze like dirt, pet hair, even sunlight. In addition, two stages of sleep are REM sleep (rapid eye movement) and non-REM (almost non-moving eyes) with special mechanisms that prevent us from sneezing during sleep.

A stimulus strong enough like smoke or sleeplessness can make us wake up suddenly. Shea notes that if we sneeze in the middle of the night, the reason may be because some external stimuli often wake us up first, and then we can sneeze.

" The brain cannot sleep and handle listening, seeing, smelling, and feeling at the same time. But if a sensory stimulus is strong enough, it will wake us up. This stimulus may include effects. causing us to sneeze, " said Don Watenpaugh, a member of the American Sleep Research Association.