Is blinking an unconscious act?
356574
Yes. It is governed by the autonomic system that resides within your sub-conscious. We do not have to THINK consciously,  about where to send our breathing, how much synovial fluid to distribute within the joints, or even how much current to distribute whne we activate(Innervate) a motor end plate(Muscle). That is the beauty of allowing our natural self manage the essentials while we use our faculties to create!
546367
All people blink.  It is an involuntary reflex (meaning it happens without you knowing) which helps hydrate the eyes and clear away dust, etc.\n\nYou can voluntarily blink also, which a blind person can do.  The nerves responsible for sight and blinking are different, so the only way a blind person could not blink would be if there was a stroke or infection which caused damage to both of those cranial nerves.
722702
The blink rate is associated with the ability of the brain to processes information. For babies, the brain is at a formative state, therefore blink rate is lower. As the brain functions get more formalized, blink rate increases.
206548
Yes conceivably but your body would decide to breathe in spite of your wishes once if you are unconscious. The only thing that would stop that was if something was blocking your air passages.
329471
There are many things that we do that do not require our conscious brain.  Whatever things you are talking about, perhaps the subconscious got started on it before the consciousness got involved.  When cockroaches feel stimulus on their back legs, they begin running before their conscious mind knows why they are running.  It's just like the other poster said, the impulse telling your hand to pull oout of a fire doesn't require your conscious mind to make a decision, it starts the process for you.\n\nIt's an interesting idea that this might have to do with quantum wierdness, but I think experiments woudl reject that.  I encourage you to keep thinking of things like this and hypothesizing.  Eventually you may be teaching us instead of the other way around :-)
360721
Excessive blinking is not an uncommon problem. Sometimes it is allergy, sometimes habit and least often, a nervous "tic."\nSudden onset of frequent blinking of the eyes is annoying and perhaps worrisome. It may be due to a benign motor tic of childhood, a "nervous condition" which may mysteriously appear, last a few months, and then go away. It is unclear if benign motor tics are brought on by tension or anxiety. If the eye blinking progresses to involve facial muscle grimacing, verbalizations that are uncontrolled, or other motor tics, this may signify a more serious neurological disorder, called Tourette's Syndrome, which should definitely be seen and managed with the help of a  neurologist. \n\nSometimes children develop frequent eye blinking from conjunctivitis; or from blepharitis, which is irritation along the edges of the eye lashes sometimes caused by Staph germs. If you have seen any pus or thick drainage from your eyes or if you see little tiny blisters or crusting along the edges of the eyelids, you should consult an ophthalmologist.\n\nGood luck.
823890
NO, because our eyes are normally closed when we sleep... Blinking occurs naturally and is triggered by our brain when it detects that the the eye needs moisture. Blinking at some point can trigger our tear glands to release liquid to help avoid dryness.\n\nThe phenomenon you see when a sleeping person seem to jitter his eyes when close is called R.E.M. or Rapid Eye Movement. This usually happens when a person is dreaming in his sleep.
907950
Surely, it's "Blinking" obvious!
136194
Don't feel embarrassed, It has happened to me several times. I think your mind is still awake in a certain sense and you have trained your body that when you fall, to reach your arms out and catch you...so your brain reacts to that and does so.
844656
Its due to the inability of the brain to control motor neurons and where it is sending the electrical impulses; also it can act like a short circuit where you say blink an eye, but signals fire muscles not only your eye but also in your neck which cause involuntary movement... we all take it for granted... you only notice this balance when something goes wrong..... I think for some conditions it can be very painful... just imagine how annoying that would be to you... these people deserve a lot of respect for what they have to put up with, not only the condition but the attitudes of people towards them.\n\n\nps: there are better ways to word that type of question... perhaps you could have used mentally handicap... to be retarded refers to being held back... and I dont think that is the case these days as most conditions are better understood.
4802
They're working on it. :-)\n\nWhat they do know:\n\n"The results [of a recent study] turned up [that] ... it bypasses the known brain circuitry for consciously analyzing and mimicking other people’s actions."\n\n"This might be part of a more general phenomenon of unconscious signals that serve to synchronize group behavior, the authors of the Neuroimage paper wrote. “Such synchronization could be essential for species survival and works without action understanding, like when a flock of birds rises to the air as soon as the first bird does so—supposably as it notices a predator.”"\n\nTry the article in the sources for more.
904081
Registered Nurse here; Yes Dear you see a Physician Immediately.  As for a seizure, I have read your question 3 times, sounds like a seize, except for one thing, you remained awake during the entire spell, correct? That's what's confusing me, I have seen hundreds of seizures, and I'm unable to recall ever seeing a patient remain aware of there surroundings during and immediately following a seize.  Now saying you were zoned out, this is certainly what we call post dictal, and follows a seizure.  But Sweetheart, your health is far to important for me to speculate here on Yahoo, having a history of seizures, and with this latest episode, you already know, it is indeed time to return to the doctor.  Thank you for allowing me to address such an important and sensitive question.
903497
It depends on who is staring.  Some people just do that and it doesn't mean anything.  Without having a mind reading device it's impossible to know.
400384
Usually people with lazy eye (strabismus) ignore (suppress) the eye that isn't pointed where they're looking.  The brain doesn't like to get conflicting information from the two eyes, so if it does, it only pays attention to one.
460878
Yes, the brain never sleeps. There have been many studies of Rapid Eye Movement. It makes no differance what your physical handicaps are as long as your not on life support and listed as "Brain Dead".
654425
emergency awareness area of the brain while you are in trance cause most tapes say if theres an emergency you will instantly wake up and be totally aware
1051080
Yes.  I did some double blind tests in High school which objectively could be written off any number of ways, except that as the recipient of one experiment, the experience was so profound, I came away a believer.\n\nOur experiment was that one person was to go to sleep at a particular hour, with a radio playing pop music softly in the room.  The other person, about an hour later, across town was to try to send a telepathic message to wake up when a certain popular song was played.  The recipient did not know what song was selected.  When/if the recipient woke up, he was to write down whatever song was playing.\n\nWe had a pretty high hit rate.  As the subject of one round I remember being in a deep sleep, dreaming, when the opening bars of the theme from Star Wars (this was about 1977) ripped through my dreams like an explosion and yanked me instantly and fully awake.  It was about 2:30 am, and as a 14 year old I NEVER woke in the middle of the night.  The mere sound didn't do it, the radio was on so softly you could barely hear it, but that song woke me up like the orchestra was right in the room with me.  The next day we confirmed that the suggestion was indeed to wake when star wars played.\n\nAnd all that crap about we use only 10% of our brain is just that: a lot of crap.  Most of the brain power you're "not using" is being used to perform tasks below your conscious level to even enable you to be conscious!  Far more than 10% of the brain is used just in processing visual stimuli.  Same with language and communication processing.  Stop and think of the hideous amount of firmware necessary to run - perfectly - for me to be able to process my thoughts into language, and then translate them into finger motions over a keybopard at the incredible rate of 60wpm just to write this message.  Just reading this message takes up more than 10% of your brainpower before you even get to the point where you can think about what it says.