13 Quick Eye Facts to Impress Your Friends

1. Vision is so important to humans that almost half of your brain’s capacity is dedicated to visual perception.

2. The most active muscles in your body are the muscles that move your eyes.

3. The surface tissue of your cornea (the epithelium) is one of the quickest-healing tissues in your body. The entire corneal surface can turn over every 7 days.

4. Your eyes can get sunburned. It is called photokeratitis and it can make the corneal epithelium slough off just like your skin peels after a sunburn.

5. Ommatophobia is the fear of eyes.  Yes, that's a thing.

6. Your blink rate decreases while doing visually demanding tasks like reading or working on a computer – and that’s one reason those tasks can lead to more dry-eye symptoms.

7. Your retinas see the world upside down, but your brain flips the image around for you.

8. If you are farsighted (hyperopia) your eye is short, and if you are shortsighted (myopia) your eye is long.

9. An eyelash has a lifespan of about 5 months. If an eyelash falls out it takes about 6 weeks to fully grow back.

10. One in every 12 males has some degree of “color blindness.”

11. Adults average between 14-17 blinks per minute.  Assuming you're awake about 16 hours a day, you're blinking between 5 to 6 millions times a year.  

12. It takes about 4 months for a baby to see clearly and in full color.  

13. There are no nerves inside the eye, which is part of the reason you often can't tell if you have some serious eye diseases like glaucoma.  It's important to get your eyes checked regularly!

Article contributed by Dr. Brian Wnorowski, M.D.

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