There you are, minding your own business, when your eye starts to spasm out of control.

有时候，当你专注于做事的时候，你的眼皮开始不受控制地跳动。

It's a very annoying feeling which can persist for hours. But is there any cause for alarm? Trinidadians have quite a rich collection of superstitions concerning jumping eyes. For instance, if your right eye jumps, you are going to hear good news, and if your left eye jumps, you are going to hear bad news. Superstitions aside, the short answer is that a twitching eye is totally fine, although in some exceptional cases it may underlie a neurological condition. 

Eye spasm is characterized by the spontaneous contractions of muscle without muscular atrophy or weakness. You might have experienced an involuntary muscle spasm in your knee or elbow. The same can happen to the orbicularis oculi muscle (the muscle in the face that closes the eyelids). 

Eye spams are typically unilateral, occurring in one of the lower eyelids. Sometimes, both eyelids may be involved but the fascicular contractions of each eyelid is independent of each other. The transient and intermittent twitching is semi-rhythmic at a rate of 3-8 Hz. 

In the majority of cases, eyelid spasms are no cause for concern. These are usually self-limiting and benign, so medical intervention is typically unnecessary. Very rarely, eyelid myokymia may occur as a precursor of hemifacial spasm, blepharospasm, Meige syndrome, spastic-paretic facial contracture, and multiple sclerosis.