Why Do Eyes Change Color with Moods, Age and Surrounding?

Why do eyes change color with moods
Why do eyes change color with moods

Does eye color change with moods, emotions or age? Is this true that babies eyes change color as they grow? Have you been told by people that your eyes are changing color as your age progresses? You may have a noticed or been told that your eyes look different when you happy or sad. Below are answers to this and more on why eye colors seem to change or thought to change color in different situations.

Why Do Eyes Change Color?

Now let us delve into what causes eyes to change color in different circumstances; the iris gives the eyes its color and this depends on the amount of melanin they contain that is why you find most Caucasians will have lighter eyes. For most people they will have their eye color fixed by the first year after birth. As you will have knowledge of this already, the pupil of your eye dilates or contracts when exposed to different levels of lighting, There are also several other such reactions that will occur to your eyes and such will sometimes be mistaken with color change due to the different reactions. Here are some of the reasons why your eyes may change or appear to change eye color:

Why do eyes change color with moods
Why do eyes change color with moods
  • Aging
  • Disease
  • Prolonged exposure to sunlight
  • Lighting and colors in the surrounding
  • Eye surgery
  • Color contact lenses

Good to know: One study on 428 subjects on whether personalities are in a way linked to the color of their iris found out that the similar genes that make up the frontal lobe affect eye color. This is the reason why there are distinct shared behaviors in people with similar colors of the iris.

Why Do My Eyes Change Color with Moods and Clothes?

Why do my eyes change color with moods and emotions? Is it possible for eye color to change when you cry? Eye color may seem to change with emotion or moods but the color itself does not change. It is not possible for the human iris to change color with emotions whether happiness or sadness. Here are a few situations where the eyes appear to change color:

Do Eyes Change Color with Moods?

When someone is angry, they will tend to have dilated red blood vessels, the eyes will be darker and with contrast, they may appear to be greener. Pupils dilate during moments of happiness or grief. The enlargement of the pupil will make a normally dark pupil appear even darker.

Eyes Change Color with Clothes

Eye color may appear different depending on what you are wearing. If your eyes are green for instance which means you have some pigmentation but not a whole lot of the green and you are wearing green colored clothes, which can amplify the scattered light reflecting back, this means because you are wearing a shirt, which is complementary to your eyes, they may appear of different color to the other person.

Another reason that might make people tell you that your eyes have changed with your mood is actually the eye of the beholder. The perception of eye color change may be in different ways influenced by colors in the surrounding. This can be walls, furniture, painting or any other bright colors around but mostly, the clothes you are wearing.

Can Eyes Change Color with Age?

The color of our eyes is based on the number and color of pigment granules i.e. melanin in our iris. These granules vary in color from almost colorless to dark brown. The darker the pigment, the darker the color will be. The lesser the granules, the lighter the eye color will be.

Eye color change can also be due to various eye diseases that come with age. Most people begin to develop eye problems such as pigmentary glaucoma, as they grow older. Medications used for eye diseases such as glaucoma may permanently change the color of the eye from blue or green to brown. According to glaucoma.org, change in the color of the iris is one of the systemic side effects of treatment with prostaglandin analogs.

Horner’s syndrome, or Fuchs heterochromia iridocyclitis could cause eye color changes, but these tend to be associated with a more rapid change in eye color. An eye doctor could determine if such an eye disease exists.

When Do Babies’ Eyes Change Color?

Babies are mostly born with blue eyes due to a very less amounts of melanin pigment in the iris at birth. A huge percent of reported cases of color change in eyes is with the Caucasian population, they will see a change in their eye color as they age. This is due to having less melanin, the eye color changes due either to a gradual decrease in the number of pigment granules in the iris or due to a degradation of the granules. Some people will have a greater loss of pigmented granules, and this causes their eyes to appear blue later in life.

Babies eyes may change color
Babies eyes may change color

 

CAN EYES CHANGE COLOR WITH MOOD, FROM BLUE TO GREEN?

As discussed above, the Iris color does not change in anyway instantly. This is a myth that is not in any way proven by doctors and opticians. You might be seeing a color difference because of the lighting and the contrast to the color of clothes you are wearing or any other colorings around you or in the surrounding. The only time an iris changes colors is due to disease or aging. This is normally a slow and a more permanent change, not something that will happen overnight or goes back and forth.

Can eyes change color from blue to green?
Can eyes change color from blue to green?

Unlike what common belief, the iris does not change colors in an adult (except in the case of certain pathologies, such as pigment dispersion syndrome). Iris color may appear to change, depending upon the color of clothing a person is wearing on a particular day. However, this presumed color change does not actually take place; it is a misperception by the observer, often due to variations in lighting.

So can your eyes really change color? Well, not really, but they certainly can appear to change. All of what we see around us is just reflected light. When you look at an object or even another person, you are actually receiving reflected light into your eyes. If that object was illuminated with red light, you would see that object as red, even though it may in fact be white. The melanocytes of the iris do not change (except in infants and the elderly) and therefore are not responsible for periodic eye color changes. The light around you does change, however, especially reflected light from the color of the room, the sky, and your clothes. So there you have it, as you will see the human eye is a complex organ but a very vital one.

Do Hazel Eyes Change Color?

Why do hazel eyes appear to change color? Hazel eyes are very rare and quite difficult to define since they have a variation of eye colors. They iris appears to be multicolored- one color is found close to the pupil while another towards the edges. It is most of the times defined as a combination of colors predominantly green and brown. They have lesser melanin than brown eyes but more than blue eyes. According to the eyedoctorguide.com, hazel eyes have one of the least understood colors.

Hazel eyes may appear to change color
Hazel eyes may appear to change color

Is it possible for hazel eyes to change color with moods and surroundings? This may be true in some way, as hazel eyes tend to reflect colors in the surrounding. Hazel eyes change color depending on lighting, clothing and type of eye make-up one is wearing. It is this change of eye color that makes people with hazel eyes to be perceived as unpredictable, mischievous and fun loving.

1 Comment

  1. Well, I’m not completely agree with you. I have been monitoring my eyes color changes due to different moodes. And believe it or not, for me and my eyes different modes would reflect in my eyes.
    I got hazel eyes in the morning I would have the most beautiful and vivid brown eyes. After that…who knows.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.


*