Go ahead. Stare eye-to-eye with a friend. Try not to blink. You may win the contest, but it’s only a matter of time before you blink again!
Blinking spreads tears over your eyes. Tears protect your eyes and keep them from drying out. When you are calm, you may blink about 20 times a minute. If you are upset or excited, however, you might blink 100 times a minute. Luckily, the average blink lasts less than a second. So you don’t even notice all those little moments of darkness.
The tears that spread during a blink come from special glands under your upper eyelids. Usually, just enough tears are made to keep your eyes moist. But sometimes you can get a real flood.
When you are very upset, you cry. Then tears flood your eyes and can overflow onto your face. Sometimes dust or other material gets into your eyes. Then your eyes fill with tears to wash the harmful substance away. Blinking fast often helps the tears do their job.
When you blink, your eyes close for a split second. But when you’re scared you might squeeze them shut for a long time. Think about a ride on a roller coaster. You can close your eyes so you don’t see what’s coming next. But there is no fooling your stomach. It feels like it just flipped. In fact, you might be starting to feel dizzy.
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"Why do people blink?" was posted on Sunday, August 12th, 2007 at 11:49 pm.
hi i enjoyed the read
Thanks,
My six year old came to me and said “Mom why do we blink?” Your explanation was easy to understand and a great help.
How often do people blink?
That was cool! Now, my long time q, answered!
How long does it take to blink your eyes?
Thanks a lot. That helped me with a school project. You had some great information.
The motion of opening and closing of the eye takes 400-100 milliseconds, cool huh? But that’s only when it’s done naturally, you can force it faster than that or slower.