You could cry at a joyous conclusion to a narrative, a painful breakup, or seeing an onion in bits. Tears eye have several uses, and your eyes constantly generate them. You produce 15 to 30 gallons of tears annually.
You Have Several Different Types of Tears
Tears are necessary to keep your eyes healthy and to aid in clear vision. They may also help in expressing your feelings. Your body cries out in three different ways.
Your eyes constantly produce basal tears to lubricate, hydrate, and shield your cornea. Basal tears are an ongoing barrier between the eye and the outside world, keeping dirt and other objects out.
Reflex tears are produced when your eyes need to flush out hazardous irritants like smoke, foreign objects, or onion smells. They come out of your eyes more often than basal tears and could have more antibacterial antibodies.
We cry emotionally when reacting to emotions like happiness, sorrow, fear, and other negative emotions. According to some experts, emotional tears include extra hormones and proteins not seen in reflex or basal tears.
Layers in Tears
Tears are not only salt water. They include enzymes, lipids, metabolites, and electrolytes and resemble saliva in structure. Three layers make up each tear.
- A mucus layer within the tear holds the whole rip tight to the eye.
- A moist middle layer that is the thickest serves to moisturize the eye, ward off infection, and shield the cornea.
- A protective outer layer of oil keeps the tear’s surface smooth and prevents the other layers from evaporating.
How Your Body Makes Tears
Tears are produced by lacrimal glands located above both eyes. Tears cover the surface of your eye when you blink. Puncta, which are small holes in the corners of your upper and lower eyelids, are where the tears eventually drain. Tears exit your nose after passing via a duct and tiny canals in your eyelids. Tears will either disappear or be reabsorbed there.
There are instances when infants are born with clogged tear ducts, a condition that often goes away independently. Adults may have a blocked tear duct due to an eye infection, edoema, trauma, or a tumor.
The lacrimal drainage system becomes overloaded when emotional or reflex tears are shed. This explains why these tears may overflow from your eyes, slide down your cheeks, and even drip from your nose.
As You Age, Your Tears Will Become Less Frequent
Age-related basal tear production slowdown might contribute to the emergence of dry eye. People experiencing hormonal changes, particularly women during pregnancy and menopause, often have dry eyes. Dry eye may also be a side effect of several drugs and contact lenses. In addition to having dry eyes, blepharitis, a frequent cause of irritation or swelling of the eyelids, may also be more likely to affect you. You may try several easy home remedies in addition to seeing an ophthalmologist to keep your eyes moist.
All About Tears of Emotion
How come we cry? This issue has been the focus of centuries of scientific enquiry.
The origin of tears was found by Danish scientist Niels Stensen in 1662. Basal, reflex, and emotional tears are the three different kinds of tears we experience. Most scholars think that only people can cry emotionally when experiencing powerful emotions like pleasure or grief. Even though a lot of research is being done on weeping right now, we already know that biological, psychological, and social variables affect emotional tears.
Tear Causes
Although Charles Darwin initially referred to emotional tears as “purposeless,” we have now discovered that they encourage beneficial behavior and social connection.
According to psychologists, they were sobbing developed from animal vocalizations. Even if their lacrimal glands are immature, infants and newborns may cry out for attention and care. Physical discomfort is another frequent cause of emotional tears eye throughout infancy and early adolescence; this tendency tends to lessen with maturity.
As we mature into adults, a wider variety of emotions, such as bodily discomfort, attachment-related discomfort, empathic, compassionate discomfort, social discomfort, and sentimental or moral impulses, progressively cause us to cry emotionally.
As a Social Signal
Lauren Bylsma, PhD, University of Pittsburgh, states, “The value of crying may be more about the social response it prompts than its physiological effects.” Dr. Bylsma has studied sobbing extensively and discovered that crying with social support increases the likelihood that individuals will feel better after they call. The person felt better after crying after the crying-inducing situation was resolved or when the crying person had a fresh perspective on what was wrong. People who attempted to control their sobbing in an unfriendly environment (such as the workplace) were less likely to experience relief after crying.
More Women Cry Than Guys
Though everyone cries at different rates, Dr. Bylsma notes that it is commonly known that women weep roughly three to four times more often than males do, and their tears are usually more severe.
Together, the Limbic and Lacrimal Systems Produce Emotional Tears
Your limbic system, which is connected to your brain’s emotional arousal centre, sends a message to your Pons, also known as the “message station” of the brain, causing it to alert your lacrimal system to start producing tears. The physiological and neurological changes accompanying emotional tears will need further study.
What’s in Your Tears, Anyway?
Even though we know that all tears eye include lipids, metabolites, enzymes, and electrolytes, there is still much to learn about the chemistry of emotional tears. According to some experts, these tears may consist of extra proteins and hormones not present in basal or reflex tears. Emotional tears have been shown to have higher quantities of prolactin, adrenocorticotropic hormone, Leu-enkephalin, potassium, and manganese. Some scientists have proposed that releasing stress hormones such as leu-enkephalin may aid bodily regulation or return to homoeostasis. These early results, however, still need more scientific replication.
We are still discovering how much more tears do than keep our eyes moist and guard against germs.