Blinking does a lot for the health and function of our eyes.

With every blink, our eyelids spread fresh layers of tears across the surface of our eyes. It keeps them from drying out and brushes away tiny irritants like dust and dirt that might interfere with our vision. When we have excess tears, they drain out through the tear ducts into our nasal passages.

That’s actually why our noses tend to run when we cry.

Have you ever noticed that when you’re concentrating hard on something like a book, show, game or project, you’re not blinking as much as usual?

You’re not imagining things; while focusing, we tend to blink as few as three times per minute - much less frequently than the healthy rate our eyes rely on to operate more effectively.

The longer we go without blinking often, the more it can compound into problems like dry eye and eye strain.†

The answer isn’t abundantly clear, but here’s one leading theory:

Light can damage your eyes - as anyone who has reactively shut their eyes under bright light would know.

Water refracts light - meaning it splits light up into different directions, reducing the concentration of light in one location.

This may be why our eyes water under light - tears are produced to refract and disperse light to protect the eyes.

If infrequent blinking leads to eye trouble for you, especially when doing activities that require intense concentration, making a conscious effort to blink more could help. Work on making it a habit to close your eyes when thinking or performing tasks you don’t need your vision for. Setting reminders to do a blinking exercise each hour can help; before long, the reminders won’t be necessary.

One good exercise to keep our eyes feeling fresh is to close them, pause for a moment, squeeze our eyelids, and then open our eyes again.

You can also perform 10-20 seconds of rapid blinking every hour you focus hard on a book, show, computer, game, or project.