I am one of 18-35% of the human population with a photic sneeze reflex! If I step out of a dark building into full bright sunlight, it makes me sneeze. It always has. When I was a kid, I used to think I was just weird somehow, but seemingly, it isn’t so rare.

First documented in work attributed to Aristotle, solar sneezes are apparently a genetic thing. The nerve responsible for sneezes (believed to be the trigeminal nerve) has a close association in some people with the optic nerve. As a result, if you overstimulate your optic nerve (by suddenly stepping into bright sunlight, for instance) it also stimulates your trigeminal, making you sneeze. How curious.

I always seem to end up reading random things while I’m waiting for computers to come back online…