Teary Mystery

Image Credit: Flickr User Hey Paul Studios, via CC

Have you ever wondered :

Why do we get tears when we are sad?

Why do we cry when we are emotional?

Why do our eyes become watery when something falls in it?

Or why do our eyes become all wet when we take that mighty yawn?

Both human eyes have glands called lacrimal (pronounced lah-krum-ul) glands, present under the upper eyelids. These glands are more commonly known as tear glands. These tear glands are responsible for the production of lacrimal fluid or what we call tears. These tears flow out of the eyes through tear ducts, or lacrimal ducts. These tiny tube like structures are present in our eyes and nose. Whenever we cry, tear ducts push excessive tears out of our eyes. Since tear ducts are present in our nose as well, the water that flows out of your nose when you are howling is also tears!!

Ok so this is how we get tears. But who tells our eyes to get tears? The big question still remains – Why do we get tears?

You remember that brain is the boss of our body. Now there is a connection between our tear glands and our brain. Whenever our brain receives a message that we are in an emotional state, tear glands become active and secrete water like tears into our eyes.

When something falls into our eyes, our brain gets an immediate message that the foreign particle in our eyes should be thrown out right away. Even in this case, our tear glands get activated and secrete tears that help washing away the particle.

When we yawn, we scrunch our face and squeeze our facial muscles. This in turn, squeezes the the lacrimal ducts that holds our tears. The squeezing forces out a few tears into our eyes That makes our eyes feel all watery.

There are some very interesting facts about tears you would like to know:

Tears produced during emotional crying have a different chemicals than other types of tears.
Animals do get watery eyed sometimes but do they cry ? Scientists are not sure.
Some people believe that if you get the first tear in your right eye, you are crying because you’re happy. If you get the first tear in your left eye, it would be probably because you’re sad. Well, you would know the best !
The expression ‘crocodile tears’ means fake tears or tears without any emotion. The expression comes from an ancient anecdote that crocodiles weep in order to lure their prey.
Though babies cry a lot, they don’t produce tears until they are about couple of months old.

Can you tell? When someone cuts onions why do they get tears? Read here.

Now answer this, why do girls cry more than boys? Ha! We are trying to find the answer ;)