How Many Blinks A Day

Blinking: Frequency and why we do it

Depiction of an eye preparing to blink

How many times exercise you blink per day?

Blinking is almost like breathing: Yous do it all day, every day without paying attending to or counting your blinks. And so how many times do you glimmer in a day? The average teen/developed blinks fifteen times per minute. There are ane,440 minutes in a day, and so you probable blink most 21,600 times per day.

The average number of times you blink in a day may vary individually but is about the same for men and women. Babies and children blink less oft.

Assuming your blinking frequency is in line with the average for teens and adults, your number of blinks in a given timeframe should resemble the following:

How many times practise you blink in a week? Around 151,200 times per calendar week
How many times do you blink in a month? Around 657,439 times per month
How many times do you blink in a year? Around vii.8 million times per year.
How many times do you blink in a decade? You blink over 78.8 1000000 times per decade.
How many times do you lot glimmer in a lifetime? You volition blink over 621.5 million times during your life.

Why exercise you lot blink your eyes?

Blinking serves many of import functions to continue your eyes good for you. You blink in guild to go along your eyes make clean and moist, and too to rest your eyes and mind.

In fact, these are the 4 primary functions of blinking:

Blinking keeps your eyes make clean – When you blink, the motion of the eyelid and the distribution of tears help to clear away allergens such every bit pollen, dust and other debris. This lowers the take a chance of eye irritation and infections.
Blinking keeps your optics moist – A blink replenishes the tear film, which is a layer of tears that covers the surface of your center. The tear moving picture is important for center health and clear vision.
Blinking gives your eyes a rest – Blinking also allows your eyes to take a brief rest from the chore at paw and to refocus after the glimmer. Normal blinking can help foreclose centre fatigue.
Blinking gives your mind a pause – Blinking also gives you short mental resting periods, which can help you regroup when you lot're concentrating on a task.

Equally you can run across, blinking your eyes is key to centre health. In fact, it'due south a vital role of your day fifty-fifty if you rarely realize you lot're doing it.

What happens if y'all don't glimmer?

If you don't blink often plenty, information technology tin can crusade problems such as dry eyes. Dry eye symptoms may include:

Blurry vision
Discomfort when wearing contact lenses
Itchy eyes
Red eyes
Sore or tired optics
Light sensitivity (photophobia)
Feeling like yous have something in your eyes

Handling for dry eyes may include over-the-counter or prescription centre drops, warm compresses or fifty-fifty home remedies for dry eyes such as blinking more often, using a humidifier and wearing sunglasses. There are too other treatments that tin can be performed at your eye medico's role.

Things that touch on blinking frequency

In that location are a variety of factors that tin impact how often y'all glimmer, from age to behaviors such as screen use. Here are a few things that impact blinking frequency.

Age and blinking frequency

Babies glimmer only two times per minute. The frequency of blinking increases throughout babyhood and reaches about xv times a minute for adolescents and stays the same throughout life.

Excessive blinking tin exist a sign of vision problems in children. These problems may include vision issues such every bit myopia, or eye problems like allergies, dry out eyes, pink eye (conjunctivitis) or a scratch on the cornea. It may also mean there is something in their heart.

If your child is blinking often, take them to visit the eye medico.

Screen use and blinking frequency

Staring at or working in forepart of a digital screen changes how often nosotros blink. Studies show that you blink most ane-tertiary as often every bit normal when staring at a screen.

For example, if yous normally blink 900 times in an 60 minutes, and so you'd blink only about 300 times while working on your laptop or playing a game on your smartphone. You too tend to not fully close your optics when you glimmer while in front of a screen.

Sleepiness and blinking frequency

Exercise you blink more when you're tired? Research shows that people who are sleep deprived or who accept abnormal sleep patterns blink 20 to 30 times a minute. So you lot may blink twice equally often when you're tired.

Eye or health conditions and blinking frequency

There are other eye and health weather condition that tin affect how much you lot blink. For example, conditions such as an eye infection or a scratch on the cornea may crusade more frequent blinking.

A condition chosen blepharospasm tin can cause uncontrollable blinking or eyelid twitching. Doctors don't know exactly what causes blepharospasm, but it tin be treated with Botox injections or surgery. Eye twitching as well can be caused by many more than common conditions, such as dry optics, stress or consuming too much caffeine.

Some health atmospheric condition may besides be associated with more than frequent blinking. For example, a type of epileptic seizure — petit mal seizures or "absence seizures" — may crusade rapid blinking.

Should yous blink more oft?

Most people use screens — from laptops to smartphones to TVs — for at to the lowest degree part of each twenty-four hour period. This probable means you're not blinking quite as ofttimes as you should. Making an attempt to stop what you're doing and blink can help to keep your optics healthy.

You can plan to take little breaks to go along your eyes moist while yous're in front of a screen. Every 20 minutes you lot find yourself staring at a screen — set a timer if you need to — take a break to blink.

During your screen break, slowly shut and then open your eyes 10 times. Brand sure you do "full blinks" by closing your eyes and pausing in gild to fully distribute the tears over your eyes.

Making a point to glimmer more oft tin help to keep your eyes moist. This can help you avoid digital center strain and eye irritation from dryness.

Your heart doctor can check your blinking frequency

Do you have dry out, irritated eyes? Set up an appointment for an eye exam. Your middle physician may perform tests that include checking your eyelids and observing how frequently yous blink. This can aid the doctor make a diagnosis and prescribe treatment for dry eye or other issues.

Page published on Midweek, April xiii, 2022

Folio updated on Thursday, April 14, 2022

Medically reviewed on Monday, Feb 28, 2022