Do you hold in your sneeze? Reasons why you should not

Damaged Blood Vessels

As noted above, sneezes are incredibly powerful and cause significant amounts of pressure to build up in the body, especially the head. When this pressure gets too high due to holding in a sneeze, you can damage or even burst blood vessels in your eyes, nose, or eardrums.

In addition to being potentially painful at the time the injury occurs, damaged blood vessels often can cause a superficial change in your appearance, such as a bright red blood vessel appearing in the white of the eye or on the nose.