A Few Brief Facts About Blinking

Blinking is an involuntary bodily function that assures the eyes are kept moist whilst in their sockets, as well as keeping any foreign bodies from damaging the surface of the eye.

When closed, the eyelid creates a suction film across the entire eyeball to stop it from drying out.

Here are some interesting facts about blinking that you probably didn’t know.

The average person blinks their eyes about 11,500 times per day or about 4.2 million times per year.

Even though blinking only takes a fraction of a second, when all added up together, these fractions culminate to thirty minutes of having your eyes closed a day – that’s 182 and a half hours a year!

The muscles that control blinking are called the orbicularis oculi and levator palpebrae superioris muscle.

The orbicularis oculi closes the eye, while the contraction of the levator palpebrae muscle opens the eye.

These muscles are the fastest-moving muscles in the human body!

Many different studies have been conducted on the frequency of blinking in adults within many different scenarios.

One such scenario was that of Air Force pilots in a flight simulator flying over either friendly or enemy territory.