The easiest way to make yourself sneeze is to gently tickle the inside of your nose with a tissue, but several other tricks work by stimulating the same nerve pathway. Sneezing is a reflex, which means you can’t force it through willpower alone. You need to trigger the sensory nerves inside your nasal lining, and there are a handful of reliable ways to do that.
Why Sneezing Is Hard to Force
A sneeze is a three-stage reflex that your brain controls automatically. First, your diaphragm and rib muscles contract to pull in a large breath. Then your soft palate seals off the back of your nasal passage. Finally, your glottis opens and a burst of air fires out through your nose at speeds around 35 miles per hour. The whole sequence takes less than half a second and launches droplets over two meters forward.
Because it’s a reflex, you can’t just decide to sneeze. You have to fool the sensory nerve that runs from your nasal lining to your brainstem, called the ethmoidal nerve, into sending the “irritant detected” signal. Every method below works by stimulating that nerve or a closely related branch of the same facial nerve network.
The Tissue Trick
Roll a single corner of a tissue into a thin point and gently insert it into one nostril. Twist it slowly against the inner wall of your nose. This directly irritates the nerve endings in your nasal lining. Most people will sneeze within a few seconds. If one nostril doesn’t work, try the other. The key is a light, rotating motion rather than pushing the tissue deeper.
Look at a Bright Light
If you’ve ever walked outside on a sunny day and immediately sneezed, you may have the photic sneeze reflex, sometimes called ACHOO syndrome. Somewhere between 15% and 30% of people have this trait. It’s genetic and dominant, so if one of your parents is a sun sneezer, you have roughly a 50% chance of being one too.
To use this method, close your eyes for 15 to 20 seconds, then open them and look toward (but not directly at) a bright light source. A sunny window, a lamp, or even a phone flashlight held at arm’s length can work. The sudden shift from dark to bright overstimulates the optic nerve, which sits close to the nasal nerve pathway, and the signal spills over to trigger a sneeze. If this doesn’t work for you, you likely don’t carry the trait, and no amount of light will change that.
Sniff a Strong Spice
Black pepper, white pepper, and ground cumin are classic sneeze triggers. The active compounds in these spices, particularly the one responsible for pepper’s bite, irritate the sensory fibers inside your nose on contact. You don’t need to inhale a cloud of pepper. Crack open the container and take a careful sniff from a few inches away. A tiny amount of airborne spice particles is enough to activate the reflex.
Be cautious with this approach. Inhaling a large amount of any fine powder can irritate your airways and cause coughing or a burning sensation that lasts several minutes. A light, controlled sniff is all you need.
Pluck an Eyebrow Hair
This one surprises people, but it has a clear nerve-based explanation. The skin around your eyebrows is supplied by a branch of the same large facial nerve network that serves your nasal lining. Plucking a single eyebrow hair sends a sharp signal through that branch, and in some people the signal crosses over and triggers the sneeze reflex. This trick works best for people who also have the photic sneeze reflex, since both responses rely on cross-activation of the same nerve pathways.
Other Reliable Triggers
- Cold air. Step outside into cold air or open a freezer and inhale through your nose. The sudden temperature change stimulates the nasal lining.
- Fizzy water. Sniffing carbonated water lets tiny carbon dioxide bubbles irritate the inside of your nose. Sparkling mineral water works well for this.
- Humming and nose pinching. Pinch the bridge of your nose gently and hum at the same time. The vibration can stimulate the nasal cavity enough to push a building sneeze over the edge.
- Tongue on the roof of your mouth. Press the tip of your tongue firmly against the roof of your mouth and drag it backward. This stimulates nearby nerve endings and sometimes triggers a sneeze, especially if you already feel one coming on.
What Not to Do
Sticking anything rigid or sharp into your nose, like a cotton swab, pen cap, or tweezers, risks scratching the delicate nasal lining and causing a nosebleed or infection. A soft tissue is the only thing that should go inside your nostril. Avoid inhaling large quantities of irritant powders like cayenne, since these can inflame your sinuses and airways well beyond what’s needed for a simple sneeze.
It’s also worth knowing what happens when you do the opposite and try to hold a sneeze in. Stifling a sneeze by clamping your nose and mouth shut traps all that force inside your head. The pressure can push infected mucus back into the tubes connecting your nose to your middle ear, potentially causing an ear infection. It can temporarily spike the pressure inside your eyes, which is a concern for anyone with glaucoma. In rare but documented cases, suppressing a sneeze has ruptured blood vessels in the head or neck. A sneeze generates enormous force for such a small event. Let it happen.
When a Sneeze Won’t Come
Sometimes you feel a sneeze building and it stalls right at the edge. This usually means the nerve signal was strong enough to start the reflex but not strong enough to complete it. Stacking two triggers at once often pushes it through. Try the tissue method while looking at a bright light, or sniff pepper right after stepping into cold air. The combined stimulation gives your brain enough input to fire the full reflex.
If none of these methods work, your sneeze threshold may simply be high. People vary widely in how sensitive their nasal nerve endings are, and some individuals rarely sneeze outside of illness or strong allergen exposure. That’s normal and not a sign of any problem.