This is the reason people tend to close their eyes when kissing

Medical Video: Why Do We Close Our Eyes When We Kiss?

Kissing is a form of closeness and intimacy that has been known to humans even since prehistoric times. Whether with family, friends, or lovers, kiss has become a symbol of love. Especially for lovers or husband and wife, kissing on the lips has a deeper meaning than just touching each other's mouth. If you notice, usually people will close their eyes when kissing. In fact, when lovers are chatting or holding hands, they don't need to close their eyes. Then why do you tend to close your eyes when kissing? It turns out that this is very much related to the biological system in the human body. To find out more, see the following information.

The origin of the kiss

Understanding of kiss as a form of love and trust has been embedded in humans since birth. When you are a baby, you learn to interact and build relationships with other people for the first time through your lips, that is through breastfeeding activity. This experience then shapes the baby's perception of love and security. The baby's brain nerves will translate activities that involve the mouth and lips as positive emotions. When you grow up, you will still interpret stimuli or touches on your lips, including kissing, with love and security.

Lips are also one of the body parts that are most sensitive to sexual stimulation. On your lips, there are lots of nerves that are sensitive to the slightest touch. This touch or pressure will send a signal to the part of the brain responsible for processing information and sensory systems. Then, the part of the brain that receives signals from kisses will produce hormones and substances such as dopamine, oxytocin, and serotonin that can make you feel happy and comfortable. All three are often referred to as love hormones which are also produced when you are still breastfeeding your mother.

The importance of closing your eyes when kissing

To find out why people tend to close their eyes when kissing, psychologists at Royal Holloway, University of London (RHU) try to do an experiment. Through this experiment, researchers studied how the participants responded to stimuli given by touch while working on the game looking for words. The results of this study indicate that the stimulation given is not realized or felt maximally by the experimental participants. While when participants are not asked to do any assignments involving vision, they will be more sensitive to the touch given.

The study, published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, further concluded that humans would be more sensitive to touch sensations that occur when kissing if there is no visual disturbance. When your eyes open, the brain will become busy processing various types of information received by the sense of sight. As a result, the brain also has difficulty concentrating on stimuli received by your lips. This is why most people tend to close their eyes when kissing. Closing your eyes can help you feel the sensation of a kiss more intensely.

According to Dr. Sandra Murphy and Dr. Polly Dalton who carried out this research, humans have a natural urge to close their eyes so they can increase their focus on just one of the senses. It also answers the mystery of why people close their eyes when listening to music, which is so that the brain can concentrate on the senses of the listener. People also tend to close their eyes when enjoying delicious food so that their taste senses can work better in recognizing the taste and texture of food. Similar to kisses, people usually close their eyes when having sex so that the brain can feel a stronger sensation of physical touch.

Is kissing with eyes open naturally?

Don't be afraid if your partner usually kisses without closing his eyes. Some people, especially men, do have a tendency to kiss with their eyes open. This can be triggered by several reasons.

The first reason is your partner wants to record the best kissing moments in his memory. The memory that you want to create for some people is not only limited to your sense of touch, but also the senses of vision, smell, or hearing. He will remember the atmosphere, body aroma, and your facial expression when kissing.

In other cases, your partner is too busy controlling the movements of his lips, tongue and mouth so that the brain has difficulty sending commands to the eyelids to stay closed. Usually this happens when you and your partner are kissing passionately. So, that does not mean your partner deliberately "peek" when kissing.

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