12 Interesting Facts About Eyes

Did you know our eyes focus on 50 different objects every second?

Did you know the only organ more complex than the eye is the brain?

What if we told you it’s impossible to sneeze with your eyes open?

Or that your eyes can distinguish about 10 million different colors!

BayState Eye Center optometrist Dr. Donna Zhang says that impressive feat is thanks to our eyes’ three main color receptors – which are red, green, and blue.

Dr. Donna Zhang, BayState Eye Center

“If one or more of those receptors are defective or missing completely, that’s where color blindness comes into play,” she says.

According to the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, roughly 12 million Americans are color blind.

Here are a few more fun facts about our eyes that you can impress your friends with:

Ommetaphobia is the fear of eyes.

“A lot of people have a fear of the eyes, even when it comes to having a routine eye exam. Some patients are nervous and uncomfortable. It’s my job to make sure every single person who sits in the exam chair is comfortable and confident that we’re here for them,” Dr. Zhang said.

80% of all learning comes through the eyes.

Dr. Zhang says, “A lot of our brain is dedicated to visual input and processing information. The eyes really define how we interact with the world.”

Here are a few more fun facts:

1. Our eyes can detect a candle flame from 1.7 miles away
2. The average person blinks 12 times per minute (bet you just blinked)
3. Eyes are the fastest contracting muscles in the human body – doing so at 1/100th of a second!
4. Your iris (the colored part of your eye) has 256 unique characteristics; your fingerprint has just 40
5. Only 1/6 of the eyeball is visible

And lastly, the optic nerve contains more than one million nerve cells.

As Dr. Zhang admits, those cells reveal a lot.

“We see those cells when we capture images of a person’s retina using Optos. We can diagnose eye diseases, like glaucoma, which is often asymptomatic during its early stages. That’s why it’s really important to make sure you have an eye exam each year,” she said.

We hope you enjoyed these 12 interesting facts about our eyes.

If you haven’t had an eye exam in the past year, it’s time to schedule one!

You can do so in just a few clicks, by tapping the red button below.

From all of us at BayState Eye Center,

Thank you!