“Just let it out.”
It’s a line I’ve heard from my father more times than I can count, usually as I scrunch up my face, squeeze my eyes shut and clamp my nose, producing little more than a pathetic squeak as I desperately try to stifle a sneeze.
Easy for him to say. When my dad sneezes, subtlety goes straight out the window. First comes the dramatic gasp of air. Then, a ferocious “achoo,” accompanied by a full-body recoil.
It sounds less like a sneeze than a scream — and routinely sends the dog scrambling.
My dad, it turns out, is in good, if very loud, company.
As a kid, my colleague Rachel Sacks would yell “earthquake” whenever her father, Robert Sacks, unleashed one of his signature sneezes.
Wellness editor Carly Stern’s dad, Phil Stern, is similarly unrestrained at home. “I’m quite aware I’m louder than most,” he admitted to The Post. Carly concurs: “It’s ridiculous. And unnecessary.”
Around the office, plenty of Posties had their own stories of fathers whose sneezes seemed capable of rattling the walls. Online, videos of patriarchs unleashing booming “achoos” have racked up millions of views, while families fleeing for cover have inspired countless parody clips.
The dreaded “dad sneeze” even inspired a skit starring Will Ferrell. And apparently, the phenomenon has become so well-established that even ChatGPT knows the lore, writing that “dads have apparently decided that sneezing is a full-body event.”
“I think dad sneezes were the inspiration for the atomic bomb, I definitely feel like I’m in a fallout zone. Ears ringing, confusion, praying for death, etc,” one Tiktok user wrote. Another commented: “Mine too!! It’s like the roof raises!! Almost a scream. Scare the pants off ya!”
So it begs the question: Why do dads sneeze like that?
“It’s just one of those mysteries of life, like where do the missing socks go?” Robert said.
Others suspect the answer may be buried somewhere deep in our past.
“It could be biological and evolutionary,” Phil theorized. “We probably do it to scare off unwanted beasts.”
My father, Timothy Beard, also thinks our prehistoric ancestors may have something to do with it — although he suspects there may be other subconscious factors at play.
“It probably is something very primal, like grunting,” he mused. “But maybe I’m sick or not feeling well and I want comfort, on a weird level.”
Curious to separate fact from dad lore, we turned to the experts.
But first: Why do we sneeze at all?
“A sneeze is basically a protective reflex designed to clear irritants from the nose and upper airway,” explained Dr. Zachary Rubin, a pediatrician, allergist, immunologist and the author of “All About Allergies.”
These irritants stimulate sensory nerves in the nasal lining, which send a signal to the brainstem.
That, Rubin said, sets off a rapid-fire sequence: “A deep breath, closure of the vocal cords, contraction of the chest and abdominal muscles, followed by a forceful release of air through the nose and mouth.”
And when it comes to noise, there’s nose such thing as a standard-issue sneeze.
Rubin said the decibel level can be influenced by lung volume, the strength of the respiratory muscles, the anatomy of the nose, mouth and throat, and how much someone constricts or opens their airway during the sneeze.
But behavior matters, too.
“I just want to let it all out. I also feel that a loud sneeze is much more satisfying.”
my dad, Timothy Beard
“People can modify a sneeze to some degree, consciously or unconsciously, by changing how widely they open their mouth or how much they try to contain it,” Rubin said. “So the dramatic sneezer at the dinner table may not be biologically destined to shake the windows every time.”
Still, there are some “plausible” biological reasons why dad might sneeze louder.
“Men tend to have larger lungs and airways and can generate greater respiratory pressures, so it is conceivable that this could translate into a more forceful sneeze,” Rubin said. “But I’m not aware of compelling evidence showing that men are biologically programmed to sneeze dramatically louder than women.”
Social and learned behavior, he noted, is almost certainly at play.
“The gender differences in sneezing largely come down to ‘display rules,’” said Rod Mitchell, a registered psychologist and clinical director of Emotions Therapy Calgary.
We spend our lives learning these unspoken rules about how big of an involuntary reaction we’re allowed to broadcast to the people around us.
“Girls get told earlier and more frequently to not make a scene, to keep their voice down and sit properly. These display rules become automatic, and they get applied to sneezing as well,” Mitchell explained. “Boys also get their behavior corrected, but it’s less about not making a scene and more about what they say.”
Men may also face a different social expectation when it comes to suppressing a sneeze.
“Men don’t get judged for the volume — they get judged for looking like they’re managing it,” Mitchell said. “Men are taught to hide visible effort, so a stifled sneeze from a grown man is interpreted as being fussy.”
Still, context matters.
All of the dads The Post spoke to said they actively try — and are able — to stifle their sneezes in public settings, which Mitchell said would be seen as considerate.
But one thing is certain: Dads think their super-sneezes are superior when it comes to getting the job done.
“I just want to let it all out,” Timothy said. “I also feel that a loud sneeze is much more satisfying.”
“I feel it’s a clearing. I’ve held sneezes back in the past, and I almost blew out my brain,” Phil said. “We all do things in the privacy of our own home that we would never do in public. So what the heck? I just let it all get out of me.”
There’s one part of dad’s philosophy the experts can get behind: Don’t hold it in.
“For most people, holding in a sneeze isn’t going to result in a catastrophe, but there really isn’t much upside to trapping that pressure,” Rubin said. “If you feel a sneeze coming, the better approach is to let it happen and direct it into a tissue or the crook of your elbow.”
So perhaps dad was right all along. Just let it out.
But for the sake of everyone’s eardrums, maybe don’t let it all out.
