Sneezing is the body’s natural reboot and patients with disorders of the nose such as sinusitis can't do so, which explains why they sneeze more often than others, a new study has claimed.

Specifically, scientists now know exactly why we sneeze, what sneezing should accomplish, and what happens when sneezing does not work properly.

Much like a temperamental computer, our noses require a “reboot” when overwhelmed, and this biological reboot is triggered by the pressure force of a sneeze.

When a sneeze works properly, it resets the environment within nasal passages so “bad” particles breathed in through the nose can be trapped.

The sneeze is accomplished by biochemical signals that regulate the beating of cilia (microscopic hairs) on the cells that line our nasal cavities.

To make this discovery, the researchers used cells from the noses of mice which were grown in incubators and measured how these cells cleared mucus.
 
The researchers speculate that sinusitis patients sneeze more frequently because their sneezes fail to reset the nasal environment properly or are less efficient at doing so. The study is published in the FASEB Journal.