Blinking helps the health and function of our eyes

Have you ever counted the number of times you blink in one minute? On average, adults blink between ten and twenty times per minute, and each blink lasts just one-tenth of a second.

We blink to keep our eyes clean and fresh

Tears are like the “windshield wipers” of our eyes. With every blink, our eyelids spread fresh layers of tears across the surface of our eyes. It keeps them from drying out and brushes away tiny irritants like dust and dirt that might interfere with our vision.

Focusing hard? You might be blinking less.

Have you ever noticed that when you’re concentrating hard on something like a book, show, game, or project, you are blinking less than the usual? We tend to blink as few as three times per minute. It is much lesser in frequency. The longer we go without blinking often, the more it can compound the problems like dry eye and eye strain.

Train yourself to blink more

If infrequent blinking leads to eye trouble for you, especially when doing activities that require intense concentration, making a conscious effort to blink more could help. Work on making it a habit to close your eyes when thinking or performing tasks you don’t need your vision. Setting reminders to do a few blinking exercises each hour can help.

One good exercise we can do to keep our eyes feeling fresh is to close them, pause for a moment, squeeze our eyelids, and then open our eyes again.

If you are experiencing eye strain or dry eye and blinking exercises that aren’t helping, call us to get an appointment!