This year, World Sight Day falls on October 10. It is an annual day of awareness held on the second Thursday of October, to focus global attention on blindness and vision impairment. The red-letter day is coordinated by the International Association for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) under the World Health Organization's VISION 2020 Global Initiative.

In line with the celebration, we have gathered some fun facts about our eyes from various sources.

1. The average eye blinks over 20,000 times a day, and the average blink lasts about 1/10th of a second. (Milwaukee Eye Care Associates)

2. The little lights you see with your eyes shut are phosphenes, which come about when you shut your eyes tight. This is because the retina is stimulated by pressure on your eyeball. (Matossian Eye Associates)

3. The pupil expands as much as 45% when a person looks at something pleasing. (Matossian Eye Associates)

4. Each of our eyelashes has a "life span" of approximately five months. (Glasses Direct)


5. Babies cry but don't produce tears until they're one to three months old. (Glasses Direct)

6. The average person blinks about 11,500 times per day and approximately 4.2 million times per year. (Zeal Optics)

7. About 80 % of what we perceive comes through the eyes. Our memories are made 80 % by images. The eye comes with information about the depth, distance, shape, color and movement of the objects. (Softpedia)

8. People generally read 25% slower from a computer screen compared to paper. (Alterni)

9. The shark cornea has been used in eye surgery, since its cornea is similar to a human cornea. (Alterni)

10. The human eye can distinguish 500 shades of the gray. (Alterni)