Why do my eyes change color?

Factual Questions
1

I know that this happens to like 1 in 15 people or something but why?
They change from green to brown and back again

2

while color changes can occur over a period of time, most “changes” are just the result of different lighting conditions.

3

whoops, hit reply to soon.
I meant to add that I have hazel/green/brown eyes myself and outdoors my eyes look decidely greener/hazel than indoors where most people would describe them as brown.

4

While it is commonly believed that eyes change color, in fact any changes are very long term…like the change from eye color in childhood to old age.

However, that does not mean that our perception of their color stays the same. One of the factors that cause us to see colors a certain way is the influence of various nearby colors. So, you may wear a green dress (or eye shadow) and your eyes will appear one color…yet when you wear a red dress (or eye shadow???), your eyes will appear to be a second shade. This can be easily seen by cutting out small squares of colored paper and putting them on different sheets of colored paper, which is the way I easily convinced my students that eyes do not change color over short terms of time.

In addition, as mentioned, the light that falls on your eyes has an infuence on the color that you preceive. Surely you have bought clothing that looks one color in the store, but when you get it home it looks quite different. Our visual system is very sophisticated, and normally we don’t notice this. However, if you take pictures of people in sunlight, in incandescent lighting, and in florescent lighting, you will see the effect of the ambient light and how it effects the color. (BTW, don’t try this with a good digital camera, as it may be smart enough to compensate for the different lighting conditions!!!)

So in a sense, your eyes “change color” because of your visual system and the two effects above.

5

Also might have a bit to do with how the light level is affecting the size of your pupils.

For example, my eyes shade from blue to green, to a rather unpleasant amber colour which is only seen when my pupils are very tiny.

So, indoors (under dimmer light, with more pupil showing) I have blue eyes, in normal sunshine they look green, and very rarely (usually when I’m angry) they’re green specked with gold.

‘Crocodile eyes’, my family call them. Such a flattering term. :rolleyes:

Perhaps this is the case with your green/brown eyes, Ice?

6

My eyes actually do change their colour. It´s been observed by different people under different lighting conditions (with this I mean that once they are one colour or pattern, I can be indoors or go out in the sunshine and they´ll still look that way) and apparently regardless of what colour my clothing is.

My eyes are a greyish green with brown specks. Sometimes you see hardly any brown, sometimes my left eye is half brown (from the middle to the rim, so I don´t think it has anything to do with the size of my pupils), while the right one is never more than one third brown.

I don´t know why they do it, though I suspect it might have something to do with emotions and hormones (just a WAG). But I like it, it´s kinda cool :wink:

7

hey thanks for all the help guys
but I really do think that its not just me percieving my eyes two different colors. it is definately a average green and normal brown at times. Also, I don’t think that it changes with outdoor/indoor. They usually stay one color for about a year, say brown the first year. Next year they will be hazel, then the next year they will be green. Then they will be hazel again and then back to brown. :rolleyes:
Oh well, like universe said, “Its kinda cool”

8

I’ve known a few folks with green eyes that would turn yellow when they were angry, scared or in love. My guess is that the capillaries in the iris dialate, which somehow causes the brighter color.

9

I’m not convinced it’s just the light in all cases. I have actually stood looking in a mirror and watched my eyes change from green to gray-blue. There was no change in lighting condition at all. Other people have observed this color shift as well, when I’m just sitting and staring at something, definitley not switching lighting conditions or anything. I’ve also observed my eyes being different colors at different times under the same lighting conditions in a windowless bathroom. Usually they’re some shade of green, but I’ve seen them be almost gray or almost blue, and once I distinctly remember they were a pale blue-gray with a kind of honey-brown around the pupil and a very solid black line around the iris. So I’m not buying the “It’s just lighting conditions.” I’ve actually watched them fade from one color to another. I can’t explain it, but… there ya go.

10

From observation of people with changeable blue eyes (myself included…too bad “bluzel” sounds ugly, we need a name too) I’ve found that “lighting” is a real simpification. There are at least three reasons people eyes change color.

  1. Lighting, of course

  2. Clothing/makeup color. Many eyes like to match shades of blue, green or gray if they can. (and purple according to skeptics of Liz’s lavender eyes. I never wear purple, so I couldn’t tell you)

  3. Day to day changes in mental and physical conditions. Eyes change color when someone is upset, sick, or didn’t get enough sleep. According to other people (and the mirror) my eyes turn a bright turquoise if I get less than 4 hours sleep- and they sting like hell- the change is so startling I’ve been asked if I was wearing colored contacts. And they tend towards gray or greenish-gray when I’m sick. Other people seem to be like this too.

11

Cecil has covered this. More research is probably required, but I believe that true eye color change has not been reliably observed in short (less than months long) periods.