Have you ever felt your eyes moisten after blinking?
Why do we blink our eyes?
Blinking is a reflex designed to moisten and nourish the cornea: the transparent membrane that covers the eyeball. It also protects the eyes from injury and enables tears to be secreted, spread out and drained away.
The act of blinking stimulates the glands in your upper and lower eyelids that produce the oil in your tears, ensuring that your tears are spread evenly across the cornea. A normal blinking frequency is around 15 times per minute, equivalent to once every 4 seconds.
Blinking regularly can prevent dry eye syndrome. Unfortunately, our environment contains a variety of factors that cause dry eye.
First up is screens: when placed higher than our gaze, they force the eyelids to open too wide. Numerous studies have shown that we blink three times less when using a screen than when talking to someone.
To make up for this, you can perform simple blinking exercises, which will help retrain your eyes:
- Close your eyes and count to three.
- Squeeze your eyelids tightly shut and count to three.
- Open your eyes and count to three.
Repeat the sequence five times in a row, several times per day.
IF THE PROBLEM DOES NOT GO AWAY, SEE AN OPHTHALMOLOGIST.
