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Is Blinking an Involuntary Action?

Blinking your eyelids is necessary. It helps moisturize the eye and it helps to keep out foreign materials from entering the eye. The eyelids are muscles that can move fast enough and not interfere with your sight.

  1. Voluntary or Involuntary

    • Blinking is considered to be both voluntary and involuntary. A person can blink whenever he wants, but blinking also happens when we don’t even think about it.

    Blinking

    • A person blinks an average of once every five seconds. That's equal to about 17,000 times a day.

    To blink...

    • If you try to stop yourself from blinking, your eyes will dry out and eventually you do blink to re-lubricate your eyes. The moisture in the eyes is what helps protect them from foreign materials, so it's essential for blinking to occur.

    ...Or not to blink

    • A person can only really stop themselves from blinking for about one minute.

    Eye tics

    • Eye tics are quick, involuntary movements of the eye muscles. These can fluctuate from mild to not even noticeable. However, there are times when the ticks are so quick that it can interfere with normal vision.

      Eye tics are usually caused by stress, anxiety, fatigue, side effects from some medications and infections of the brain.

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