Why our eyes blink spontaneously?

Has it ever occurred to you why our eyes close spontaneously when there is a blow of wind coming or a ball being thrown in front of us?

Well, this goes back to the reflex action controlled by signals from the eye to brain. Blinking reflexes are controlled by many muscles, narrowing them down into two, the upper eyelid muscles: the orbicularis oculi and levator palpebrae superioris muscle. The orbicularis oculi closes the eye, while the contraction of the levator palpebrae muscle opens it.

Although this reflex only last for a part of a second; but as any of our bodies’ reflexes they always must serve a purpose and are of great importance and of course so does BLINKING.

There are quite a few explanations why do we blink our eyes. The most common and obvious is to make sure that our eyes are kept moisturized. This is done through meibomian gland which is found around the eyelid edges; and secret natural oil. When our eyelid closes spontaneously this action helps the oil secretion and spread over the eye surface preventing it from drying out. Another reason that goes along for moisturizing ; is that blinking urge tears from lachrymal glands to flush away any foreign body or dust that might be present there. Another reason why we blink when a ball is being thrown at our faces is that our eyelid acts as a shield protecting this delicate part in our face!

Another finding of a study made by an international team of scientists who studied the eyelids blinking in humans, reported to researchers from the University of California at Berkeley, and published in the journal Current Biology showed that:

Blinking repositions our eyeballs so we can stay focused on what we are seeing. It said that when we blink our eyelids, the eyes roll back into their sockets — the bony area that surrounds and protects the eyes!

2 thoughts on “Why our eyes blink spontaneously?”

    • Hi David, Blinking is controlled by a reflex, an automatic nerve action. Besides making our eyes blink regularly, the it also works to close our eyelids when something is about to strike our face. So yes blinking is important in protecting our eyes and is related to the spontaneous movement, You can decide not to blink and stop blinking, maybe for ten seconds or so. But then again the automatic control becomes too strong,, forcing your eyes to blink spontaneously!
      Hope this helped, and feel free if you have any questions =)

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