This month marks the 25th anniversary of National Eye Exam Month. Begun in 1989 by Sears Optical, the month serves as a yearly reminder to schedule your eye exam. Vision deterioration takes place on a long-term scale, so it’s difficult to notice when your eyesight changes on just a day-to-day basis. Whether you wear glasses, contacts, have received LASIK, or have perfect vision, you owe it to yourself to schedule your exam once a year. Most eye-related disorders, when detected early, are entirely reversible.
To celebrate anniversary of the holiday, take a look below at 25 fascinating eye facts.
- The average blink lasts 1/10th of a second.
- The average person blinks 12 times a minute.
- Babies are famous for their crying, but don’t produce tears until 4-13 weeks old.
- 80% of eye problems worldwide are either avoidable or curable.
- Over 95% of all animals on the planet have some type of even the most simple eye.
- Eye color changes depending upon light conditions refracting through it.
- Every eye contains over 107 million cells that are all light sensitive.
- If you wear glasses that flip your vision upside down, your brain realizes and corrects your vision.
- You blink more often when you’re talking than when you’re reading.
- Over 99% of adults between 43 and 50 need reading glasses.
- The eye’s lens is quicker than any camera’s.
- Diabetes is often first detected during an eye exam.
- Your eyes don’t see anything, your brain does. Your brain translates the light into images.
- Every human eye has a small blind spot.
- Eyes heal quickly. It takes less than 48 hours for the eye to heal its own corneal scratch.
- The world’s most common eye color is brown. The least common is blue.
- Eyelashes have an average lifespan of five months.
- A shark cornea is used in cornea replacement surgery when another human’s isn’t available. It’s most similar in the animal kingdom.
- The cornea is the only tissue in the human body that doesn’t contain blood vessels.
- Reading in dim lighting doesn’t hurt your eyes, but may tire them quickly.
- A fingerprint has 40 unique characteristics. An iris has 256.
- An owl can see a moving mouse over 150 feet away.
- Research has found that a tie tied too tightly can increase the prevalence of glaucoma in men.
- In the average lifespan, an eye will see over 24 million unique images.
- Only 1/6 of the human eye is exposed.
This National Eye Exam Month, schedule your LASIK consultation and get rid of your glasses and contacts for good!
