Have you ever participated in a staring competition? Because of the natural urge to blink, it might be difficult to keep your eyes open for long periods of time.
There are two main reasons, said Dr. Brenda Pagan-Duran, a clinical spokesperson for the American Academy of Ophthalmology and an ophthalmologist in New Jersey. First blinking removes particles from the eyes. “It aids in the removal of a foreign body,” she told Live Science. “It may be something that blew in under the eyelid.”
Blinking, on the other hand, lubricates the eyeballs. To keep vision from becoming fuzzy, the eyes require a smooth surface for light to properly focus on. To maintain the surface of the eyeball smooth, blinking releases a tear film, which is largely made up of water, oil, and mucus. It also helps to keep the eye from drying out, which can be irritating. “When you have a large area of dryness, it almost feels like a scratch on your cornea,” which is the eye’s outer protective layer, Pagan-Duran said. This can be very painful because there are many nerve endings in the cornea.
The tear film also supplies oxygen to the eye. Blood vessels don’t reach the cornea, but the tear film directly transfers oxygen to it. The film also contains enzymes that fight bacteria and help prevent the eye from becoming infected.
Blinking can also aid when you’re feeling down. When you cry, you blink more frequently to clear the tears away, according to Pagan-Duran. This keeps a lake from forming on the eye, which could cause vision to blur.
It’s a reflex to blink. It happens unintentionally, but you can force yourself to blink. Blinking takes 400 milliseconds on average, according to Pagan-Duran. She went on to say that most people blink between 10 and 20 times each minute, with the average being about 15 or 16 times. However, certain circumstances cause people to blink more or less frequently.
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