Why Do We Get Hiccups?

“Hic!” There it goes again. And right on cue, someone tells you it means a person is thinking about you, or that you must be growing. But what’s actually happening when you hiccup — and why is it so weirdly hard to stop?

Here’s the honest truth most articles won’t lead with: scientists still don’t fully know why hiccups exist. But the leading explanation is genuinely strange and wonderful — it may be a leftover from a time before our ancestors even walked on land.

First, what a hiccup actually is

A hiccup starts with your diaphragm — the large, dome-shaped muscle under your lungs that you use to breathe. Normally it contracts smoothly to pull air in. But when it suddenly spasms, you gulp a quick burst of air into your throat. That rushing air hits your voice box, your vocal cords snap shut, and — hic — that’s the sound.

The mechanics are well understood. The mystery is the next question: why does the body do this at all? Hiccups don’t seem to help us. So why do we have them?

The leading theory: hiccups are a leftover from our fishy past

This is the part the textbooks rarely tell you. One of the most compelling explanations is that hiccups are an evolutionary leftover — a reflex inherited from ancient ancestors that breathed through gills.

Think about a tadpole, halfway through becoming a frog. It has both gills and developing lungs. To push water across its gills while keeping it out of its lungs, it does something specific: it sharply sucks in, then snaps its glottis (the opening to the airway) shut. That motion — a quick inhale plus a glottal “snap” — is almost identical to a hiccup.

Scientists who proposed this idea point out that the same brainstem circuitry controlling that ancient gill-breathing motion still exists in us. Hiccups may simply be that old wiring misfiring — a 370-million-year-old reflex with no job left to do, like a biological appendix for breathing.

So why do babies hiccup so much?

Here’s another clue most articles skip: hiccups show up incredibly early — fetuses hiccup in the womb, often more than they will at any other point in life.

One theory is that these early hiccups aren’t pointless at all: they may be practice, helping a developing baby strengthen the breathing muscles it’ll need the moment it’s born. Some researchers also connect the hiccup reflex to suckling, since both involve a similar rhythm of sharp intake and glottal closure that keeps milk out of the lungs.

Why do the “cures” sometimes work?

You’ve heard them all — hold your breath, drink water upside down, breathe into a paper bag, get scared, swallow a spoon of sugar. Here’s what no one mentions: there’s no proven cure for ordinary hiccups, but the remedies that do sometimes work tend to share a logic.

Most of them do one of two things:

• Raise carbon dioxide in your blood (holding your breath, breathing into a bag) — which seems to calm the diaphragm spasm.
• Stimulate the vagus nerve (drinking cold water, swallowing sugar, pulling your tongue) — a major nerve that can “interrupt” the hiccup reflex and reset it.

So the random folk remedies aren’t all nonsense — the ones that work are quietly nudging the same two systems.

Quick list: ways people stop hiccups

No remedy is guaranteed, but these are the ones with a logic behind them. Try one at a time:

• Hold your breath for about 10 seconds, then exhale slowly (raises CO₂).
• Breathe into a paper bag — never plastic — for a few breaths (raises CO₂).
• Sip ice-cold water slowly, or gargle with it (stimulates the vagus nerve).
• Swallow a teaspoon of sugar (the texture stimulates the vagus nerve).
• Gently pull on your tongue or press lightly on the roof of your mouth.
• Bite into a lemon or taste something sour (a sudden sensory “reset”).
• Hug your knees to your chest for a couple of minutes (eases the diaphragm).
• The “basa ang noo” trick — a classic Filipino household remedy of placing a small piece of wet paper or thread on the forehead. There’s no magic to it, but the sudden odd sensation may work as a distraction that interrupts the reflex.

If one doesn’t work after a few minutes, try another — and remember, most hiccups stop on their own anyway.

A quick myth check

Here in the Philippines, sinok comes with its own folklore — actually two beliefs.

One says hiccups mean you’re growing taller (a “growth spurt” sign, especially in kids). The other says you get the sinok because someone far away is thinking of or missing you. Both are sweet ideas, and both are pure folklore — there’s no biology behind either.

Hiccups are a diaphragm reflex, not a message from someone across town or a growth meter. That said, the “growing” belief isn’t entirely random — kids really do hiccup more often than adults, just not because they’re stretching upward in the moment.

When hiccups are worth a doctor’s visit

Almost always, hiccups are harmless and pass within minutes. But if a bout lasts more than 48 hours, it’s worth seeing a doctor — long-lasting hiccups can occasionally point to an underlying issue.

For perspective on how extreme it can get: one American man, Charles Osborne, reportedly hiccupped continuously for around 68 years.

So the next time you get the hiccups…

It’s not a sign someone’s thinking of you, and it’s probably not making you taller. It may be something far older and stranger — an echo of the way our distant, water-breathing ancestors once took a breath.

Bakit kaya? Now you know.

Frequently asked questions

There’s no guaranteed cure, but holding your breath, sipping cold water, or breathing into a paper bag tend to help — they work by raising carbon dioxide or stimulating the vagus nerve to interrupt the reflex.

References

1. Straus, C., et al. (2003). A phylogenetic hypothesis for the origin of hiccough. BioEssays, 25(2), 182–188. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/10940981_A_phylogenetic_hypothesis_for_the_origin_of_hiccough
2. Shubin, N. The evolutionary origins of hiccups and hernias. Scientific American. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/this-old-body/
3. Live Science. Why do we hiccup? https://www.livescience.com/33688-hiccup-purpose.html
4. Cleveland Clinic. Hiccups: Causes & how to get rid of them. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/17672-hiccups
5. Summa Health. Why do we hiccup and how can we stop them? https://www.summahealth.org/blog/entries/2021/07/why-do-we-hiccup-and-how-can-we-stop-them