Why Your Eye Color Might Be WRONG — and 9 Other Bizarre Facts About Your Eyes

You LIKELY only really focus on your eyes when there’s something wrong – think a nasty infection or an eye test.

But your watchers can tell you a lot about your overall health, sometimes warning you about conditions like diabetes and high cholesterol.

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Our series focusing on weird and wonderful facts about various body parts has seen bizarre revelations about their breasts, butts, mouths, vaginas and penises.

Next Up, the eyes – they may not seem all that fascinating at first glance, but there’s a lot about this organ that might surprise you.

From whether you actually stop ‘seeing’ when you close your eyes to sleep, to how many times you blink a year and how all eyes are really brown – here are 10 fantastic facts about your eyes.

1. Your eyes don’t stop “seeing” when you close them

Ever wondered what that hazy red glow is that you see when you close your eyes?

That’s the inside of your eyelids! Your eyes don’t stop seeing when you close your eyes and your eyelids still let some light through.

Try closing your eyes in a bright room and then placing your hand in front of your closed eyes, you will see that it becomes a little darker.

Even in the dark, you still see some kind of flashing light or moving stars when you close your eyes.

Your eyes continue to “see” and send visual information to your brain while you sleep. That’s why, as it gets brighter in early summer, you’re more likely to wake up early.

Vision is not just about the light you see.

Your eyes also respond to stimuli. For example, even with your eyes closed, lights and colors may appear when you sneeze or cough, or even if you gently touch your eyelids when your eyes are closed.

2. The most common eye color is brown

It’s not as simple as you may have learned, there are many more eye colors than brown, blue and green.

In fact, each iris, the colored part of the eye, is unique, although there are six main shades – brown, blue, green, gray, amber and hazel.

In albinism, a health condition in which there is less melanin, which gives color to the skin, eyes and hair, the eyes can be a variety of colors, most commonly blue but including pink. Your iris is unique to you and is a form of identification, just like your fingerprints.

3. But in fact, all eyes are brown

This seems contradictory, but it is, even though we see different colors when we look into people’s eyes.

This is because they have a different amount of melanin in their eyes.

Melanin is brown, and the more melanin you have in your irises, the more light it absorbs, which means they appear browner.

But if you have less melanin in your iris, that means more light can be reflected back, reflecting in shorter wavelengths that appear blue.

Add to that, some eyes appear to change color depending on the light due to what is reflected back.

This is also why babies appear to be born with blue eyes, because they still develop melanin in the iris.

4. You blink about 5 million times a year

Each blink lasts approximately one-tenth of a second.

Despite this, you can’t actually blink 10 blinks per second, the maximum tends to be about five blinks per second, even if you are actually fluttering those eyes!

Most people tend to blink every three to four seconds, or about 15 to twenty times a minute, about 5 million times a year.

If you are in a staring contest and your eyes start to burn, the uncomfortable feeling is due to tearing. film drying on your eyes.

Therefore, tilt your head back and chin up, so that you “look” at your competitor through the smallest opening in your eyelids.

Also, if you are in a staring contest with a child, they might beat you, as young children’s tear film is more stable than that of adults, especially if you have dry eyes, which means it is You’ll probably need to blink first!

5. Your eyes get tired too

And not just from blinking so much!

There are many muscles in the eyes, but the feeling of heavy, tired eyes may not be coming from the eye muscles themselves.

It could be related to a headache, or fever, or even dry eyes.

Constantly looking at a computer screen can dry out your eyes, and even continually focusing on small texts while reading can cause eye strain.

Try following the 20-20-20 rule: if you spend a lot of time on the computer, every 20 minutes look up and focus 20 meters away for 20 seconds.

6. You need more than your eyes to see

Your eyes send visual information down the optic nerve to your brain, and they send much of it from the light you see.

But it is the visual cortex of the brain that processes this information into an image.

The way the eye works means that any light is upside down; therefore, if your eye “sees” upside down, it is your brain that translates the image the correct way up.

7. Why are you crying?

Every time you blink, you replenish the tear film over your eyes to keep them from drying out.

You cry to keep your eyes clean, and in fact, if you have dry eyes, your eyes may water to try to compensate.

But it is not known why we produce tears when we are upset, or for other emotions such as fear, anger or happiness.

It may have developed as a social cue, to help others understand what we are feeling, but not everyone cries over their emotions.

Babies cry for various reasons, because they are hungry, or wet, or cold, or tired, or they want affection, they cry to tell their caregivers something.

But this crying, at least initially, is a sound and does not involve tears – these tend to appear from around one month of age.

7. It’s not just when you’re driving that you have a blind spot

The retina at the back of the eye contains an average of 120 million rods, which are sensitive to light, and 6 million cones, involved in color vision.

The optic nerve connects the brain to the back of the eye and the point where it connects to the retina is actually your blind spot, meaning there’s essentially a hole in your vision, an area that you can’t see.

But we have binocular vision, one eye fills in the gaps in the other.

This is not the same as the blind spot when driving, it is the area of ​​the road that cannot be seen by looking in the rear view mirror or side mirrors, so always check over your shoulder!

8. When do you start seeing colors?

Scientists have long thought that newborns are color blind and only see in shades of black, white and gray, but more recent research suggests they can see some colors to a limited extent.

Your vision is not fully developed; in fact, newborns can only focus on objects about 30 cm away from their face.

It is thought that red is the first color that babies can clearly distinguish and that they can see red, yellow and blue by around two months of age.

It is believed that color vision continues to develop until four or five months of age.

9. How much eye contact is enough?

Not enough eye contact can seem socially awkward, as can too much!

There have even been studies on what the perfect amount of eye contact is when you meet someone for the first time, to find the balance between connection and making someone uncomfortable.

Apparently the magic number is about four seconds!

Added to this, your pupils dilate, not only in response to being in a dark room compared to a bright one, but also if you are attracted to someone.

In fact, as early as Roman times, the belladonna plant – belladonna meaning beautiful woman – was used by women to dilate their pupils.

But please don’t do that!

10. Your eyes are the window to…

The saying goes that your eyes are the windows to your soul, but it could actually be that your eyes are the window to the rest of your health.

There may be changes in the back of the eyes related to health problems such as diabetes and high blood pressure. Be sure to have regular eye exams.