How long can you hold your blink for?

[Justgivemethehobnobs]

I went to the opticians a few weeks ago for a contract lense check and I mentioned my eyes felt dry. The optician put some dye in my eye and agreed that I did indeed have very dry eyes. They start drying over after a couple of seconds, other people can get to 8-10 seconds apparently (very impressive of them)

This just got me wondering if I have to blink more regularly than the more wet eyed people? So using the very scientific one elephant...by three elephants I need to blink but I can hold it, by five seconds it's getting fairly uncomfortable but by nine elephants my eyes are burning and I have to give in to the sweet sweet blink.

Anyone else care to join my experiment, am I really the most dry eyed of them all?

About 5 elephants normally, 17 was rather uncomfortable.

My opticians once told me I have 20% less tears than a normal person, which I'm strangely proud of

Entirely possible he was just trying to sell me more expensive lenses though!

@Justgivemethehobnobs you are welcome! If blinking were a sport I would be a top notch coach.

I’ve repeated this quite a few times now using the stopwatch on my phone but 35 elephants seems to be my absolute limit.

I may try again tomorrow morning though, when I am less tired so if I manage to ‘achieve’ a PB haha

@Frlrlrubert That is so random, I love it! Wish I knew my tear percentage now.

I have just managed 18 elephants ( which makes me sound like a glutton at a all you can eat restaurant

I then blinked that much I am sure I propelled myself backwards a inch or two.
I also went crossed eyed while trying , do you think we all need to sign some sort of disclaimer before joining in ?

@soupforbrains yes definitely, keep me posted. I am most impressed with your improvement of twenty five elephants. Although I am a little disappointed that you've moved away from elephants to using actual stopwatches!

My eyes are tired atm so not trying again but do you hold a wink longer or shorter then blink? Is it different for each eye? I have cerebral palsy so have no natural left wink (right lid doesn’t shut. I held right eye lid shut and each side was the same and same as full blink.

Oh ffs I just counted 14 elephants before I read willowpatterns comment and realised there is a clock right. in. front. of. me.

@AlCalavicci who knew blinking could be so dangerous? (Disclaimer: no eyes were harmed in the making of this post)

@Icare1234

I'm trying winking now and I'm on about 100 elephants with my left eye closed and my right eye open, what is this witchcraft?

Holding a wink makes my face all twitchy though.

I can get to 17 elephants comfortably, but by 22 elephants I needed to blink.

I managed 19 elephants before ds1 thought I'd died and poked me.
Now my eyes are weird, I shall try again tomorrow when I'm not likely to have my life "saved" seriously, why the fuck would you poke someone who's died? First aid course for her!

@Justgivemethehobnobs I’m sorry I prefer the elephant, but I was worried I was rushing my elephants along and not therefore giving an honest timing. Since I’ve established that my elephant counting was actually very reliable I will return to elephants in the morning.

I think I have very wet eyes. My early failure (a mere 10 elephants) was a result of the fact that your post all about your dry eyes had made mine itchy and thence made them water, so I was forced to blink due to excess fluid, rather than dryness.

All sorts of things make my eyes water though so I do think I am on the wet-eyed side of the scale.

That would be dd1, thanks autocorrect.

5 hours in to social distancing and look where we are already

(48 elephants)

I made 27 elephants... but I'm in my room with the lights off as meant to be going to sleep and not wasting time on MN.

But thank you OP this post has made me smile for the first time this evening 😊

I can barely make 8 and it hurts like fuck!
My eyes do get dry and itchy though, had to give up my contacts now I'm middle-aged. 🙁

Oh god I can barely make it past 5 elephants! My max is 8 and then I just blink no matter what

What does this mean? Do I have dry eyes? It feels more like my eyes are just drying out really easily

4/5 elephants. I have my contact lenses in and my eyes are tired, I know I blink a lot in the evenings.

My optician said dry eyes are really common in middle-aged women. Yay I'm only 37.

I got to 27 elephants and I could have resisted the pain and gone longer but didn't want to.

I used to have dry eye syndrome...

I got to 4. I'd be screwed if I ever met a Weeping Angel statue. #DontBlink

Ha ha, this is something I've never thought of.

8 elephants, but that's really unpleasant. I wanted badly to blink at 6.

61 elephants. Now blinking like crazy.

61! That’s amazing @nocoolnamesleft

Ok so I my this morning’s first attempt made 43 elephants so it’s definitely easier with less tired eyes.

I need to go into a meeting now, if it’s a boring one I might try a few more times in there.