Why does sunlight hurt our eyes?

All of a sudden, there's a lot more light trying to shove its way into your eye at once, and, in an effort at crowd control, your pupil contracts. The sun is “such an unusually powerful stimulus that the iris muscle is trying to get so small so quickly that it hurts,” Dr. read more

But there are other, rarer ways the sun can hurt your eyes. Like giving your eyes a sunburn. There’s a condition called photokeratitis (aka “snow blindness”) that really is similar to the burning, blistery rash that the sun can cause on skin. read more

In normal sunlight, your pupils contract your eyes make small random movements to protect themselves. But while an eclipse, most of the sun’s light is blocked, tricking your precious jewels into thinking that they don’t need to do those things. read more

How Sunlight Damages the Eyes Although the eyelid is designed to protect the eye, its skin is exceedingly thin and contains many fragile tissues that may be injured by UV light. Inside the eye, the lens and the cornea, both transparent, filter UV rays, but by doing so for many years, they may become damaged. read more