What Happens When You Stare At The Sun For Too Long

We all know the harmful effects of the sun touching our skin, so we ready ourselves with sunscreen to block the rays. But what about our eyes? What would happen if we happened to stare directly at the sun? 

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Following is the transcript of the video:

Whether it’s to map the stars, spy on other planets, or study the sun, humans have been looking to the skies for millennia. But some objects are safer to observe than others. 

For example, astronomer Mark Thompson put a pig’s eye behind a regular telescope aimed at the sun and it burned a hole straight through the lens in about 20 seconds.

Now, looking at the sun through a telescope is an especially terrible idea but just how bad is it to glance up with the naked eye?

On a clear day, the sun shines up to 5,000 times brighter than an average light bulb. When something that bright strikes your eye, a few things can happen.

If it’s only for a moment, the worst you’ll experience is a blurry splotch on your vision called an after image. 

Normally, light reaches the retina at the back of your eye, where it triggers photoreceptors that relay the information to your brain. This is how you are able to see anything.

But bombard them with too much light at once, and you can actually damage the cells and proteins that help them process light. Since your retina has no pain receptors, the damage won’t hurt, but it will leave that blurry splotch on your vision.

Usually, it clears up in a few minutes that is, unless you keep staring.

Now, you’re doing more than just overloading your retina. For starters, you’re giving your eyes an abnormally high dose of UV radiation the same stuff that causes sunburns. Like your skin, the cornea at the front of your eye can also burn. And that will hurt.

The cornea protects the rest of your eye and is therefore covered in pain receptors that alert you whenever a pesky eyelash is on the loose. 

But UV radiation isn’t the only issue. Too much visible light can penetrate your eye and damage the retinal tissue, which causes a condition called solar retinitis. This means parts of your retina can no longer process light normally, so you can end up with entire chunks of your vision blurred out.

Depending on the extent of the damage, recovery can take weeks, months, and in severe cases over a year. But in rare cases, the damage is so extreme it never heals, leading to a rare condition called solar retinopathy. This usually only shows up in reckless eclipse gazers.

Turns out, during a solar eclipse, most of the sun’s light is blocked, which actually can trick your brain into thinking it’s safe to stare.

Normally, our bodies have a built-in defense mechanism against staring at the sun. Specifically, when we squint we look up, which minimizes the amount of light coming in and protects our cornea and retina.

But during a solar eclipse, the sun doesn’t appear bright enough to trigger our defense mechanisms so we can end up staring for longer than is safe.

Suffice it to say, there’s nothing good about staring at the sun. So do your eyes a favor and avoid looking at it.

After all, there are around 6,000 stars in the night sky you can safely observe for as long as you wish.

[HarshRajAlwaysfree]

At 3am my phone seems brighter than sun

[TheGuyNobodyReallyLikes]

There was a weirdo at my school who used to look at the Sun for 10 to 15 minutes everyday during recess and lunch. Even if he had tears coming in his eyes, he would force his eyes open with his fingers and continue to look at the Sun. His reason for looking at the Sun was because the Sun kills germs in his eyes.

[toan]

My neighbor can stare at the sun for hours
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.
.
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He is blind

[purpleluma]

I remember when I was like 7 years old my friend and I played a game to see who can stare at the sun for the longest. We both stared at it for probably a little over two minutes. Nothing too crazy happened to us but shortly after we both had to start using glasses and then we played another game to see who can leave their hand on top of a scorching hot car. It was like 110 degrees outside and our hands were really red and sensitive for a we were stupid lol glad we don’t do dumb stuff like that anymore.

[notaavegotchi]

I remember staring at the sun when I was a kid. Is it possible that I have to wear glasses because of it? Noone wears glasses in my fam

[endie]

When I was 7-9 years old, I used to stare into to the sun for about 2-3 minutes until it'd turn purple....
I did this for about 2 years until I started getting floaters...





I now wear
will forever be the most regretful thing I've ever done in my

[hizbullahrehman]

Does looking at the picture of the sun hurts your eyes?

[DynastySheep]

I've been looking at the sun loads of times when I was a kid and still have perfect vision 12 years later

[xxxtion]

you will see heaven. highly recommended

[Needsmoreflash]

I stared at the Sun with one eye for 45 minutes. I was 12 or 13, I lied and told my parents I did it on a dare but think I really did it for attention to be honest. I have a tiny blind spot in my right eye now and when my eye doctor uses his scopes to look into my eye he said it looks like someone took a magnifying glass and burned my retina. He uses me as warnings to other patients and even asked me to allow his nurse in training to look at the damage I did to myself. I'm 29 now so I'm pretty sure it's perminant. It is something I regret, don't do things you can't take back.

[manukwakye]

2:43 when you see your childhood bully

[lebanthen]

What if you look at the sun from a reversed telescope, you know when you look at something from the wrong side of the telescope it appears to be very small and far far away. So would it be less bad to watch the sun like that?

[ajdjbros]

Poor pig. Donate now: one eye=one pig saved.

[swellequation]

I stared at the August 2017 eclipse. I regret it every single day. I will never get back the wonderful life I once had. My life ruined from one little mistake.

[batista]

This is how I ended up wearing glasses for the rest of my life. Stupid decision made by 7 years old me. lol

[mr.mediocregamer]

When I was a kid in the 80s there was a TV show about a guy who had superpowers, but he had to recharge them by staring into the sun.
I wonder how many small kids hurt their eyes because of that show. It might have been a movie. I can't recall it vividly

[JustusWilcox]

I stared at the sun as a kid for the colors you get when you close them...

[Aurora_yt]

I always wondered if it's safe to stare at the sun during sunrise/sunset when the sun is rather dim, low on the horizon

[shannarafryer]

Last year I would stare up at the sun at summer to see if I could see the sun spots. Now my eyes are sensitive to light (it's not that bad it just hurts to be outside during the day) and when I go out in the sun for just a minute and go back inside, the fuzzy yellow-ish dot we see takes away 50 -75% of my vision for a short period of time

[eduardolain]

Since i started My spiritual path meditating, going to shaman ceremonies, they thaugh me the way to gain energy from it. You gotta do it when its rising at the morning, have doing it since 4 years and i have never used glasses and I've never had vision problems.

By the way after a while practicing the sun started to turn at different colors: green, blue, pink. It's beautiful.