What Happens If You Don’t Blink

We’re so used to the things our body does to keep us alive each day that we barely ever think about the mechanisms of sleeping, talking, breathing, or even blinking. But what would happen to your body if you stopped doing each of these things all of a sudden? How long would it be before it became a problem? Not that I’ve ever considered taking some sort of vow of silence, but I do sometimes wonder what would happen if I just stopped talking altogether. Would I lose my voice forever at one point?

Let’s look at what specialists at Colombia University have to say! First of all, our vocal cords are muscles. So they do need a workout every now and then to stay in shape. If you stopped speaking, these muscles would start to get weaker after a while. As a result, your voice would become quieter, and its pitch would get higher. Even worse, this might make it sound hollow, and, basically, it would be harder for you to speak overall. In a way, it’s one of those situations where if you don’t use it, you lose it. Well, kind of.

Luckily, breathing and eating would enter into the equation here. These processes would keep your muscles in some shape. Plus, no matter how long you kept silent, it wouldn’t do any permanent damage. And once you started using your vocal cords again, your voice would be back. We all know what might happen if we stopped washing — we’d smell. But let’s look at it from a scientific point of view! How about an experiment where a person stops showering for a whole year?!

Depending on its type, a person’s skin would initially become either extremely oily or very dry. The oiliest parts of their body, like behind the ears and the neck, would collect dust and pollutants and even change color. As for their head, it would get very itchy because of all that skin build-up. And after such a long time of not having a proper cleaning routine, it could take weeks to get the skin back to normal! It may sound like a vacation of sorts, but let’s look at what would happen if you never got out of bed.

One of the first organs to feel the change would be our lungs. Without gravity to pull them down into their standard position, their lower part would crease. But coughing every now and then would help to reduce this effect. Going further — you’d start to lose about 1% of your bone density with each passing week. This would make your bones more fragile. By the way, it’s also the reason why astronauts — who can go for months without experiencing gravity — need to move around for at least two hours a day and make sure they have enough calcium in their diet.

That same 1% would also apply to your muscle mass. You’d first start to see the effects of this lack of movement in your thighs and shoulders. The unused sugars that previously went to the muscles would start to build up in the blood system after about 10 days. After a whole month in bed, your heart would end up pumping 30% less blood with each beat. There would be less oxygen in your body, and you’d feel even more tired. Which sounds kinda surprising — after all, you’d spend the entire month in bed! What would happen if you held your breath for too long?

Let’s have a look at the timeline. Firstly, the oxygen levels in your brain would decrease, followed by a higher level of carbon dioxide. (Usually, your body gets rid of this gas pretty fast when you breathe out.) After about 60 seconds, the cells in your body would start to behave differently than they normally do. All body parts would be affected by the sudden change. Your heart would start to beat irregularly.

If you didn’t begin to breathe even at this point, you’d most likely end up fainting. Similar to so many other mammals, we humans have a “diving response.” This is a built-in automated mechanism that you come equipped with. It makes sure that your brain always has enough oxygen, even in an emergency situation. This “diving response” starts working extra hard every time your face ends up in the water. But it can happen on dry land as well.

Its main aim is to make sure your brain continues functioning, no matter the cost. So, it orders your body to redirect all the blood from “non-essential” body parts (like legs or arms) to the brain. Now, what would happen if you stopped blinking or if you didn’t blink frequently enough? Firstly, your corneas would likely increase in size. The cornea is the only part of your body that doesn’t have a blood supply. But it still needs oxygen to function properly. And it gets it straight from the air! By the way, that’s the reason why your cornea swells up — just a bit — when you sleep. But it goes back to normal in the morning.

Then, your eyes would probably start to dry out because the tear film wouldn’t get restored. What does this mean? Mostly some pain and blurry vision. Blinking also helps with removing all dirt and dust from your eyes. And if you stopped moving your eyelids, things would most likely get stuck in your eyes and cause serious damage.

We take chewing for granted, don’t you think so? But come to think of it, it’s the first stage of digestion. Chewing helps your stomach to process the food you eat more easily by breaking it into smaller parts. Chewing less (or not at all — should you ever resort to a full liquid diet) might cause harm not only to your digestive system but, surprisingly, to your jaw muscles as well. Without regular chewing movements, your facial features would change pretty soon! Chewing also lets your stomach know when it’s time to increase its acidity so it can process food better.

Your senses are a huge part of your day-to-day lives. And here’s a neat trick that the human brain can do: when one sense is lost or damaged, another can become much more heightened. People with bad eyesight may be able to hear better, while those who have problems with their hearing might have some sort of enhanced vision. Recent research has shown that the brain can actually remodel itself, giving more power to other senses when one is damaged or missing.

They noticed this in microscopic roundworms. They have a peculiar behavior when they have a poor sense of touch. Then, their sense of smell becomes super sensitive. And they manage to seek out food sources with a very faint scent. Similarly, some visually impaired people have something in common with bats. Surprised? I sure was! Such people basically learn to use their boosted hearing to navigate the world more efficiently.

They make a series of rapid clicking noises — this is just how bats use their built-in sonar to find their way when there’s no light. Your brain is home to 86 billion neurons. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that it also has some sort of a backup plan when some of its parts fail, right? But then there’s another question, "Why aren’t our senses heightened from the very beginning? I mean, we’re obviously born with this capability. So, why don’t we just activate it by default?

The explanation is a bit complex. Mostly, it all comes down to your body’s inability to work really hard for extended periods of time. To be more precise, your body is always looking to obtain — and maintain — a certain balance in order to function properly. When one sense is deprived, another needs to be sharper. More so, all these changes in our senses, depending on the circumstances, appear to be reversible. This yet again illustrates the human body’s need to function in harmony.