This time of year, you’re likely admiring all the wondrous holiday sights your eyes allow you to see, from beautifully bedecked Christmas trees to holiday light displays to brightly wrapped presents. The holidays would be a whole lot different without your great vision, so be thankful for it! And take a minute to learn a few interesting facts about your eyes (we bet a few will surprise you!).
- Your eyes are one of the first organs that began to develop after you were conceived. In fact, a fetus’s eyes begin developing just two weeks after conception. Guess it takes some time to create these miracles!
- The muscles responsible for moving your eyes are the strongest in your body relative to their size. Take that, hamstrings!
- If you took all the eyelashes you shed throughout your life and line them up end to end (which is a normal thing to do, right?), it would be almost 100 feet in length!
- As we age, we naturally begin producing fewer tears. That’s why dry eyes become more common as we get older.
- The beautiful eyes your friends and family see isn’t exactly the whole picture. In fact, you show the world just one-sixth of your eyes.
- Your eyes weigh about 7 grams each (or a quarter of an ounce) and are about 24.2 millimeters in diameter.
- Your eyelashes are more than just a pretty accessory. They actually catch debris and dust before those substances can get into your eyes; they’re natural protection to your eyes!
- On average, people blink about 12 times per minute. Less if you’re looking at a computer screen, so remember to look away occasionally!
- A blink is, on average, about 0.3 seconds long. When you add up all your blinks throughout the day, it amounts to about 30 minutes of shut-eye!
- When you were born, your eyes were about 70 percent the size they are now as an adult. That said, your ears and your nose never stop growing.
- Your eyes are pretty complex organs. In fact, they are composed of more than 2 million parts – all of which serve a specific function!
- You’re not alone; you (and all of us) have microscopic creatures living in your eyebrows and eyelashes.
Alright, time to fess up: how many did you actually know?
