5 Facts About Your Eyes

We often take our eyes for granted. Humans are highly visual creatures, so try to take a moment to give thanks for your good eyesight.

Most people are in the habit of taking the most spectacular parts of our body for granted. Ben Franklin stated how people often marvel at beautiful vistas, yet paid little attention to the miracle of the human body. For instance, when last did you stop to think of number of individual cells that work together to sustain life inside your body? When last did you think of the magnificent evolutionary changes that must have happened in other for you to unconsciously breathe in a perfect atmospheric gas which in turn gives life to those cells?

Truly, our bodies are magnificent, and one of the most interesting and critical part is the eye. Whatever feelings and thoughts you experience while reading this article at this particular moment are directly a result of photons of light being processed by the eyes and relayed to be interpreted by the brain.

The following are five fascinating facts about the eyes to remind you to always give thanks for your eyesight every day.

1. Eye Cells

Image Source: Wikipedia

Over 120 million cells extremely sensitive to light make up the retina in the back of your eyes. About 6 to 7 million of these cells are “cones” and it’s these cones that allow you to see colours and other details of your surroundings. The remaining 110+ million cells are known as “rods”. These rods enable you to see better in the dark and differentiate between black and white.

Surprisingly, only about less than a ten percent of our visual receptors can detect colour.

2. Blinking

On average, a person blinks about 17 times per minute, which is 28,800 times per day, and 5.2 million times a year. When reading, you actually blink less which is the reason your eyes can feel weak and tired very quickly when you’re spending lots of time reading or working on the computer.

Invariably, you blink more while chatting. The old saying, “In the blink of an eye” came about as a result of the fact that the muscle that enables you to blink is the fastest muscle in the body. Scientifically, a blink lasts 100-150 milliseconds, and this blink is necessary for keeping your eyes moist and debris-free.