If you were asked to sit for 15 minutes without blinking, do you think you could do it? What would it feel like not to blink?

I wouldn’t recommend you try this, rather simply become aware of your natural blinking frequency.

Here’s an ‘eye-opening’ fact that will change the way you look at blinking forever…

On average we blink once every 7.5 seconds (or about 11500 times per day).

What does this mean?

With a duration of about 0.1 seconds per blink, this means we spend an extraordinary 19 minutes per day with our eyes closed! That’s about 5 days per year – all because of blinking!

Do you know the reason we blink?

The blinking eyelid can be compared to the function of a sensor-activated windshield wiper.  However, instead of ridding the surface of excess moisture, the eyelid actually does the opposite; acting as a ‘lubricant’ to the surface of the eye and providing moisture when it is needed. When the eye becomes dry, we feel discomfort and the eyelid will blink through reflex.

It is another of the body’s amazing defence mechanisms and the very reason why it is difficult not to blink.

Sources: Life Time Optometry (Dr. Richard Murray) | Ask.doctoroz.com ( Dr. Mehmet Oz)

Tags: amazing health, blink, blinking, eye blinking, eye health, fun health, health trivia, human eye, interesting health, number of blinks per day, trivia, why we blink

This entry was posted on Monday, May 17th, 2010 at 12:17 and is filed under General Health, Physical. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.