WEBVTT - BrainStuff Classics: Can Your Eyes Pop Out Of Your Head When You Sneeze?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio. Hey, brain Stuff,

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<v Speaker 1>Lauren Vogelbaum here with another classic episode from our archives

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<v Speaker 1>and from previous host, Christian Sagar. This one, Okay, it

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<v Speaker 1>gets a little bit gross, and if you're sensitive to

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<v Speaker 1>medical discussions, maybe skip it. But we love mythbusting here

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<v Speaker 1>and so we couldn't help but answer the pervasive playground question.

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<v Speaker 1>If you sneeze hard enough and keep your eyes open

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<v Speaker 1>while you do it, could your eyes pop out of

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<v Speaker 1>their sockets? Hey there, brain Stuff, it's Christian Segar. If

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<v Speaker 1>you're a person who has a nose and eyeballs, you've

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<v Speaker 1>probably noticed that when you sneeze, your eyelids naturally snap shut.

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<v Speaker 1>It's the reason that sneezing while driving is a terrifying

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<v Speaker 1>roulette game of death. But I've got a question for you.

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<v Speaker 1>When you were a kid, did you hear the story

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<v Speaker 1>that if you manage to resist this reflex and hold

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<v Speaker 1>your eyes open during a sneeze, that they would pop

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<v Speaker 1>out of your head? I did. In fact, my ninth

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<v Speaker 1>grade science teacher, Mrs Abraham told me this is it true? Though?

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<v Speaker 1>Well short answer, almost definitely not. But unfortunately we can't

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<v Speaker 1>be as perfectly certain as we would all like to

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<v Speaker 1>be about this particular topic. So here are the facts.

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<v Speaker 1>Fact one. Your eyes can pop out of their sockets.

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<v Speaker 1>It's not very common, but it can happen. Doctors call

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<v Speaker 1>anterior bulging of the eye beyond its normal orbit a

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<v Speaker 1>case of exophthalamus. If the eyeball gets dislocated from its

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<v Speaker 1>socket enough that's equator is literally outside your retracted eyelids,

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<v Speaker 1>This is known as globe luxation. Fact number two. If

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<v Speaker 1>you want to sleep soundly tonight and really every other

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<v Speaker 1>night for the rest of your life, you should not

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<v Speaker 1>search the web for images of globe luxation. Fact number three.

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<v Speaker 1>Globe luxation is rare, but it can be caused by

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<v Speaker 1>a number of conditions. Of course, gouging at an eyeball

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<v Speaker 1>with a finger or another instrument that will do it.

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<v Speaker 1>Some various types of traumatic head injury can cause the

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<v Speaker 1>eyeballs to pop out of their sockets. Many cases of

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<v Speaker 1>spontaneous globe luxation in the medical literature have happened while

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<v Speaker 1>the eye was being messed with in some ways, such

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<v Speaker 1>as during the application of a contact lens or eye drops,

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<v Speaker 1>or when a doctor was manipulating the eyelids during an exam.

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<v Speaker 1>Violent vomiting has also been cited as a cause of

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<v Speaker 1>eyeball dislocation. And I might add that whoever this refers

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<v Speaker 1>to has my sympathies, because that sounds like the worst

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<v Speaker 1>day ever. Now, if we are to believe our historical sources,

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<v Speaker 1>there may have been a few cases where a sneeze

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<v Speaker 1>knocked somebody's eyeball out. For example, in April of two,

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<v Speaker 1>a US newspaper reported that a woman on a street

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<v Speaker 1>car in Indianapolis burst one of her eyeballs in the

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<v Speaker 1>middle of a sneezing fit. Whether this means she suffered

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<v Speaker 1>globe luxation, or that our eyeball just up and exploded,

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<v Speaker 1>or that journalists in the eighties sometimes reported rather dubious stories, look,

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<v Speaker 1>it's hard to say, but if we look at the

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<v Speaker 1>more recent sources. A two thousand two ophthalmology study reviewed

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<v Speaker 1>the twenty six cases of spontaneous globe luxation then known

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<v Speaker 1>to the medical world. While most of the cases they

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<v Speaker 1>found were triggered by manipulation of the eyelids, the authors

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<v Speaker 1>did also claim that a small number were brought on

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<v Speaker 1>by other triggers, including things like crying, coughing, nose blowing,

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<v Speaker 1>bending over, and yes, sneezing, So sneezing might have caused

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<v Speaker 1>the dislocation of the eyeball in a very very small

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<v Speaker 1>number of known cases. But does keeping your eyes open

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<v Speaker 1>during the sneeze have anything to do with it? As

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<v Speaker 1>I said before, almost definitely not. And it's certainly true

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<v Speaker 1>that eyeball dislocation doesn't happen every time you sneeze with

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<v Speaker 1>your eyes open, because you can go to YouTube right

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<v Speaker 1>now and look at the yeos of people sneezing with

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<v Speaker 1>their eyes open. It's not easy, but some people can

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<v Speaker 1>do it, and their eyeballs are They're fine, and they

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<v Speaker 1>seem to enjoy showing off this disgusting trick. But the

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<v Speaker 1>complete lack of correlation between open eyes and eyeball poppage

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<v Speaker 1>is a combination of the fact that sneezing almost never,

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<v Speaker 1>if ever, causes the eyes to pop out, and the

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<v Speaker 1>fact that your eyelids don't really do any of the

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<v Speaker 1>work of keeping your eyeballs in their sockets to begin with. Instead,

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<v Speaker 1>your eyeballs are primarily held in place by a combination

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<v Speaker 1>of six muscles known as the extra ocular muscles. They

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<v Speaker 1>control the movements of the eyes and are much stronger

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<v Speaker 1>than the eyelids, so whether or not you can manage

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<v Speaker 1>to keep your eyes open during a sneeze probably has

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<v Speaker 1>little to no effect on the chances that your eyes

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<v Speaker 1>will pop out, and those chances are very very slim

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<v Speaker 1>in the first place, though possibly not zero. Take that,

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<v Speaker 1>Mrs Abraham. Today's episode was written by Joe McCormick and

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<v Speaker 1>produced by Tyler Clang. For more on this and lots

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<v Speaker 1>of other popping topics, visit how stuff works dot com.

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<v Speaker 1>Brain Stuff is production of my Heart Radio. For more

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