It's In The Eyes

Notice the recent entries are really short? Well, it's because my TOR. I haven't finished it yet. So this entry will probably be a short one too.

Actually I'm supposed to be doing it now, but I'm procrastinating again. So I'm here blogging, but I can't blog properly because this TOR thingy is hanging at the back of my mind. I feel like playing Way Of The Samurai 2 on my Playstation, but it's better to complete my work first before relaxing. Oh yeah, tomorrow's the deadline for our Audio Video project and everything seems to be going quite well. Hopefully when they play it tomorrow on the big screen it'll look okie.

Well, exams are coming up and I'm sure lots of mugging has been going on and yet to come. Sooner or later you'll spot someone with dark rings around their eyes. Speaking of dark rings, I've always wondered why we get them. So I used trusty Google to find out.


Bags Unders The Eyes

Why do you get dark rings under your eyes, when you're tired?

The short answer is that nobody has done a lot of research in this area, so we don't have one single definite answer. But we do have a bunch of partial answers.

The skin under the eyes is very thin, and almost transparent - so it will show any colour changes in the layers underneath very easily.

First, the blood supply from that skin drains into the internal jugular vein. That drainage is a lot better when you're lying down than when you're standing up - so the blood tends to pool there. This is one factor that will give you dark half-circles under the eyes.

Second, you have huge numbers of Mast Cells in the skin under the eyes. These Mast Cells will release histamine (sometimes by themselves, and sometimes when you rub them), which will cause swelling under the eyes - and darkness.

Third, when you get dehydrated (which sometimes happens when you get tired), the skin under the eyes gets dark. And finally, not a reason but an observation. Eyes in animals are an important signalling area.

So if we humans get dark under the eyes, it's a way of telling other humans that we're tired.

© Karl S. Kruszelnicki Pty Ltd 2003.

(Source: Dr Karl's Homework)


Intersting. I also found this site with lots of questions related to the eyes. Like how blinking more times can help prevent your eyes from becoming dry. With the amount of mugging that's going around now, it's important to keep the eyes nice and moist. The last thing I need is having to rub my eyes every 15 minutes.

Finally in the mood to do some work. Back to the bloody TOR.