Eye Makes Cracking Sound When You Blink: Cause & Solution
Rather than fear something really bad causing your eyes to make a cracking sound with nearly every blink, there are a few facts that are important to know first.
It’s not uncommon for someone to occasionally hear a cracking type of sound when they blink.
“The average person blinks about 1,200 times an hour,” says Dr. Brian Boxer Wachler, MD, eye surgeon and founder of The Boxer Wachler Vision Institute, and developer of the Holcomb C3-R® procedure which treats a degenerative eye disease.
Dr. Boxer Wachler explains, “Your eyelids are like windshield wipers and coat the surface of your eyes with your tear film.
“There is also air right outside your tear film. Tiny amounts of air can get behind your eyelids, and when you blink it can make some pretty interesting sounds like cracking or popping, especially if you squeeze your eyelids tightly.
“So if you hear that cracking sound, then just blink normally.”
When someone hears a cracking, crackling or popping sound when they blink, the first impulse is to blink harder and/or more frequently to figure out what’s going on or if the sound is just in one’s imagination.
However, more aggressive blinking could make the cracking more likely.
It’s advisable to try daily eye drops to make sure that the surface of your eyes is adequately lubricated.
Freepik.com
Just relax and know that this situation is benign and not a sign of a serious eye or nerve disease.
Before you know it, the cracking or popping with each blink will be gone or hardly noticeable.
Cracking Sound with Cause Other than Trapped Air: Case Reports
A case described in the Journal of Audiology and Otology (Kim et al): A patient heard sound every time she blinked; examination showed rhythmic movement of the eardrum with each blink.
In the journal Laryngoscope (Lee et al), the case was a patient whose forceful blinking caused “crackling/clicking” caused by contractions of the ear muscles.
Other case reports are similar: movement of the eardrum or tympanic membrane, or contractions of middle ear muscles. Forceful blinking is especially blamed.
There is no documented case in the medical literature showing a tumor conclusively causing blinking‑induced popping, cracking or clicking that seems to come from the eye.
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Dr. Boxer Wachler has delivered hundreds of lectures on eye surgery to thousands of eye surgeons from around the world, and is a pioneer in keratoconus treatment.
Lorra Garrick has been covering medical, fitness and cybersecurity topics for many years, having written thousands of articles for print magazines and websites, including as a ghostwriter. She’s also a former ACE-certified personal trainer.
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Do Really Foul Smelling Farts Mean You’re Not Healthy?
It’s been said (by an unknown number of laypeople) that very stinky farts mean GOOD health.
But can really foul smelling gas mean an illness?
Truth is, the only people seemingly capable of announcing that really bad smelling farts means that a person is healthy are those who have really wicked smelling farts.
It kind of gets them off the hook (or so they think) next time they let a really bad one rip.
The Link Between Stinky Gas and the State of One’s Health
“To my knowledge, such odors bear no signs of ill health,” says Morton Tavel, MD, Clinical Professor Emeritus of Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine, and author of “Health Tips, Myths and Tricks: A Physician’s Advice.”
“Moreover, it’s unlikely that this will be subjected to future scientific analysis, since judgment of odor quality is highly subjective,” adds Dr. Tavel.
Is there really a such thing as nice smelling gas?
The passing of gas has a bad smell (except maybe to the person who’s doing it).
But let’s face it: Sometimes one’s farts reek a lot stronger or “worse” than they usually do. And why does this sometimes happen?
This is related to what a person has eaten.
For instance, if you’ve eaten a food that promotes the release of gas, the odor may be a lot more evil than what you’re used to.
This may occur if you’ve eaten a food with a high amount of inulin.
Inulin is a starchy substance that the “good” bacteria in your gut likes to feed on.
And when the bacteria do this, they release gas. And this can make you pass a lot of gas — that makes anyone near you want to hold their nose.
And we all know that farts smell the worst when they are passed by someone other than yourself.
But whether your health is good, decent or bad, the state of your health will not affect the smell of your gas.
Dr. Tavel’s medical research includes over 125 publications, editorials and book reviews in peer-reviewed national medical journals. He was formerly director of the cardiac rehabilitation program at St. Vincent Hospital in Indiana. mortontavel.com
Lorra Garrick has been covering medical, fitness and cybersecurity topics for many years, having written thousands of articles for print magazines and websites, including as a ghostwriter. She’s also a former ACE-certified personal trainer.
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Top image: Shutterstock/9nong
Can Twitching in the Butt Mean Serious Medical Condition?
The butt has large muscles and when they begin twitching, this is hard to ignore.
“Twitching of various muscles are, in medical lingo, termed fasciculations, which are small, local, involuntary contractions of muscles in any location (usually outside the butt) that may be visible under the skin,” explains Morton Tavel, MD, Clinical Professor Emeritus of Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine, and author of “Health Tips, Myths and Tricks: A Physician’s Advice.”
Common sights for fasciculations are the eyelid, a finger or toe, the arch of the foot, the calf and the front and back of the thigh.
But the butt, though not among the most common locations for twitching, can definitely develop this.
The three main muscles of the buttocks are the gluteus maximus, gluteus medius and gluteus minimus: the “glutes.”
Causes of Twitching Muscles
Dr. Tavel explains, “They arise as a result of spontaneous depolarization [de-charging] of nerve cells causing synchronous contraction of muscle fibers within a single group of these cells.
“Although fasciculations have a variety of causes, the majority are benign.
“They are encountered by virtually all healthy people, though for most, they are quite infrequent.
“In some cases, however, their presence can be rather annoying.”
The top reasons for a twitching muscle are exercise (particularly strenuous or prolonged), anxiety and mineral deficiency.
If your butt has been twitching lately, ask yourself if you recently did any glute-engaging exercise.
Shutterstock/Oleksandr Zamuruiev
More than once, the muscles in my butt were twitching away after I went on a long grueling hike.
The twitching wasn’t noticeable until I settled into a comfortable chair later on that day and began working on my computer. I then felt the fasciculations.
And the truth is, I LOVED them! They felt like the fingers of a deep tissue massager. I enjoyed this built-in massage!
Pathological Cause
Dr. Tavel says, “Unusually, they can also be due to disease of the nerve cells, in which case they are persistent and associated with other, more widespread muscular disorders.”
If your only symptom is the twitching in your butt (the type of twitching that you’ve very likely experienced many times with an eyelid), and especially if your rump muscles have very recently carried you through a Zumba class, running, strength training or yoga …
… then you should just relax, empty the fearful thoughts from your head and sleep like a baby.
“If a neurological examination and other tests are otherwise normal, a diagnosis of benign fasciculation syndrome is usually made, and it is best ignored,” says Dr. Tavel.
If this article provided you with helpful information or reassurance, please consider supporting my work through Ko-fi. Donations help me continue writing detailed medical content that’s easy to understand.