The joy of explaining your sneezes every time you see a bright light during cold/flu/pandemic season.
I'm surprised to see it affects 20+% of the population because I've never met anyone who knew what I was talking about when I said "sorry, light makes me sneeze"
For me, since childhood, it was a common fact that if one were almost going to sneeze but couldn't, they should quickly look at a bright source of light to succeed.
Lights don't trigger a full sneeze if I don't need to but it always helped.
Also motion sickness. Food poisoning makes your brain experience phantom movements, hence its a trigger to purge the stomach. When your car/boat causes unexplained movement, ie your limbs didnt do and your eyes cannot track, time to soil your lap.
The exact pathophysiology is still unknown but it’s a variation on “the nose nerves and the optic nerve are too close together”