Imagine a classic Mexican stand-off. Dust everywhere, the wind rolling tumbleweeds around
three nervous figures, frozen in place, not even blinking. The first to blink will give
his opponents a fatal moment to shoot first. How weird would it be if none of them blinked
at all for minutes, hours or maybe days? What would happen then?
This comical situation may sound absurd to you, but there are actually people that gather
together just to stare at each other for as long as they can without any Wild West stuff
at all. Yep, “staring contests” are an actual thing. In fact, the most famous staring
contest happened in Darwin, Australia. I know, the name is ironic considering the mindlessly
dangerous competitions. Nevertheless, this particular competition was called “So You
Think You Can Stare” and it was there, in 2012, in the final staring duel between two
men appropriately named “Eyesore” and “Stare Master”, one of the world records
for time without blinking was set - 40 minutes and 59 seconds. That’s like watching an
episode or two of your favorite series with your eyes wide open the whole time!
For most of us, it sounds almost impossible, but contestants use some clever tricks to
achieve this kind of endurance. First of all, there are, of course, various eye drops that
help keep eyes moist for a long period of time, but they’re strictly banned in most
competitions and shouldn’t be used without asking a doctor first. Participants of staring
competitions use yawning instead. Yes, did you ever notice how your eyes become wet when
you yawn too hard? It definitely works, and no one can ban yawning – that would be too
cruel! Another trick is in squinting. If you can’t fully close your eyes, at least squint
them to keep them from hurting. And finally, contestants won’t usually look directly
in the eyes of their opponent; instead, they zone out and dive into deep meditation, while
also making sure that their eyes stay open. This helps not only to numb their feelings
a bit but also to deal with tricks the opponent might pull, like trying to be funny; that’s
a legit strategy! Even with all these ploys implemented, keeping yourself from blinking
doesn’t sound fun! I don’t recommend doing something like that and soon I’ll explain
exactly why. The record setter, Eyesore, came out of this battle victorious. But he likened
the feeling to getting a tattoo on his eyeballs. Eeww! Sounds painful!
But why is blinking so important for our eyes? Mostly because they need to be moisturized
all the time. Each movement of our eyelids covers our eyes with three layers of tear
liquid. The first is packed with protein to nurture eyes and help other layers to spread
evenly on top of it. The second layer is more like water, but it’s full of minerals that
also help the cornea of an eye to work properly. And the last layer is oily in nature – it
protects our eyes from drying out and from dust and particles that might damage it. So
basically we blink because our eyes need moisture and protection from dust, right? Seems pretty
simple! Well, here’s a giant curveball for you.
Little babies don’t blink as frequently as an adult person. When you read books or
watch TV, you also blink much less often, even though your eyes experience extra stress.
And finally, fighter jet pilots, while they’re in training simulations, blink frequently
in friendly territories and less frequently in hostile situations. But it has nothing
to do with eye moisture! And if all these contradictions are not enough for you, then
consider this: we blink right between sentences when we read books, and between different
scenes when we watch a movie or a TV show. Also when we talk to each other, it’s like
we finish every phrase with a blink before we continue to speak. This information was
studied by a group of neurophysiologists from Osaka University in Japan under the leadership
of professor Tamami Nakano. On the basis of clinical observations and experimentations,
they developed the theory that a brain needs frequent reloading – just like clearing
the cache of a browser to make it work faster. This reloading happens in the blink of an
eye… Literally! Every time you blink, your brain finishes processing one portion of information,
and gets ready to process the next one. This is why pilots blink more often when they don’t
need to concentrate as much. The same applies to the reason why babies don’t blink as
often – they’re constantly soaking in tons of information about the world around
them in their early years. But why is blinking associated with resetting
information in the brain? Japanese scientists may have an answer to that question too. But
first, let’s consider the following: an average person blinks more than 21,000 times
a day, that’s one blink every 2 to 3 seconds. That means you spend around 36 minutes a day
in a blackout just because of blinking. You’ll miss at least 5 minutes of a movie, and in
an hour-long drive you go for 3 minutes with your eyes closed. Even if each blink takes
only one-tenth of a second, you must’ve noticed something, right? Don’t worry, your
brain has already taken care of it! It fools you every time you blink! This moment of darkness
just cuts out form the stream of visual information you receive. Your brain literally restricts
itself from the ability to process any visual information every time you blink. This not
only allows you to see clearly no matter how much you blink, but also gives your brain
a much-needed rest. This moment of peace is exactly what resets your brain’s ‘cache’
as I called it before. Eye blinks only look like they have no particular
order, but they happen only when they’re needed to reload information or moisten the
eyes. Even if you don’t want to blink – your brain will make you do it sooner or later.
Each one of our eyelids is controlled by a muscle called the ‘orbicularis oculi’,
and it’s the fastest muscle in your whole body. Part of this muscle works completely
at its own will. It moves without your command no matter what. And that’s definitely for
the better because your eyes might take a lot of damage without blinking.
So what will happen if you stop blinking? First of all, people around you might think
that you’re some kind of a weirdo. No, I’m joking, that’s not what we’re discussing
here. Let’s get a bit more serious: you really don’t want to hold yourself from
blinking. Period. The damage would start almost immediately. As soon as your eyeballs start
to dry out, tiny particles will settle down on their surface and start to scratch it.
The cornea of an eye is especially delicate and will start to burn immediately, pushing
the eyelids to close as soon as possible. Then tears will flow; it will be literally
a waterfall of tears, trying to wash away any dust that already settled on your eyes.
Eventually, your eyesight will lose all sharpness because of the cornea’s drying out. The
final result would be irreversible damage that may cause you to lose your eyesight altogether.
Fortunately, because of how blinking works, your brain won’t let this happen. So even
in a Mexican stand-off, someone will blink uncontrollably.
And then you shoot him, nah… In what situations would you ever need to
stop blinking anyways? Set your imagination free and hare your ideas down in the comments!
If you learned something new today, then give this video a like and share it with a friend.
But – hey! – don’t go anywhere just yet! We have over 2,000 cool videos for you
to check out. All you have to do is pick the left or right video, click on it, and enjoy!
Stay on the Bright Side of life!