Causes of Dry Eyes in the Morning

Dry eyes are caused by insufficient lubrication of the eye due to dehydration. When we wake up in the morning, our eyes are naturally moistened by tears. However, there can be various causes that prevent your eyes from moisturizing properly after sleep in the morning and they become dry.

Main Causes of Dry Eyes in the Morning

For some people, the reason for dry eyes is decreased tear production. For others it’s increased tear evaporation and an imbalance in the makeup of your tears.

Decreased tear production

Dry eyes can occur when you’re unable to produce sufficient tears. The medical term for this condition is keratoconjunctivitis sicca (ker-uh-toe-kun-junk-tih-VY-tis SIK-uh). Typical causes of decreased tear production consist of:

  • Aging
  • Particular medical conditions, consisting of diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, scleroderma, Sjogren’s syndrome, thyroid conditions and vitamin A shortage
  • Specific medications, including antihistamines, decongestants, hormone replacement therapy, antidepressants, and drugs for high blood pressure, acne, birth control and Parkinson’s disease
  • Laser eye surgery, though symptoms of dry eyes related to this procedure are normally temporary
  • Tear gland damage from swelling or radiation

See also: Dry Eye Syndrome

Causes of Dry Eyes in the Morning

Increased tear evaporation

Typical causes of increased tear evaporation consist of:

  • Wind, smoke or dry air
  • Blinking less often, which tends to happen when you’re focusing, for example, while reading, owning or working at a computer system
  • Eyelid issues, such as out-turning of the lids (ectropion) and in-turning of the covers (entropion)

Imbalance in tear structure

The tear film has three standard layers: oil, water and mucus. Problems with any of these layers can cause dry eyes. For instance, the oil film produced by little glands on the edge of your eyelids (meibomian glands) may become clogged. Blocked meibomian glands are more common in individuals with inflammation along the edge of their eyelids (blepharitis), rosacea or other skin disorders.

there can be various causes that prevent your eyes from moisturizing properly after sleep in the morning and they become dry.

Here are the best and most effective drops for dry eyes

Why Do My Dry Eyes Injured in the Early Morning?

Q) Why do dry eyes feel awful in the early morning when I first get up, especially if I do not use an eye lubricant during the night?

A) There are particular conditions that can worsen during the night with the eye in a closed state. For instance, if you have blepharitis, which is triggered by a common skin bacteria called “staph epidermidis,” the waste products of the staph are very irritating. But with your eye closed that staph toxic substance is lying there all night. If I have a patient who awakens with actually irritated eyes, one of the first things I wish to take a look at is without treatment blepharitis.

Also read: Dry Eye Syndrome Treatment

Another possible cause is called “frequent corneal disintegration.” Think about pulling a scab off all the time. It starts to heal and you pull the scab off. If the surface area of the eye gets irritated through dryness and adherence to the back of the lid, or through an injury, that tissue needs to recover. Fortunately is it heals really rapidly. The bad news is it harms a lot as I’m sure you’ve discovered. So it heals rapidly however it does not necessarily anchor itself. That thin, external layer of the cornea doesn’t anchor itself to the eye very quick, so you run the risk of re-annoying your eye even after you are feeling much better.

And when you do that over-and-over, it is called “frequent corneal disintegration.” You are essentially tearing off the outer layer of the front of your eye. Traditional sign is you wake up, you open your eyes and it harms. Utilizing lotions at night assists. Using an antibiotic lotion would assist if you have blepharitis too because it would treat that and provide your eye a little bit more coating.

Dry Eye Tip

If you have severe dry eyes and problem opening your eyes in the morning due to the fact that your cover is sticking, try to keep your eyes closed when you awaken and use the heels of your hands to gently massage your lids. What this will do is break any of those adhesions that may be there and it stimulates a little tear production so that you can really open up your eye safely. However if you get up and open up your eyes right away, you run the risk of — ouch — pulling that adhesion off, once again, like pulling a scab off of a wound.

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Comments: 1
  1. Thomas Roberts

    I have troubles with consistent dry eye. I have discovered that a night time ointment called Xailin Night is very efficient and leaves me getting up feeling quite refreshed. They can be rather greasy but will wash during the day when you use routine eye drops. Don’t use this lotion in the day as it makes vision fuzzy.
    Ensure your daytime eye drops are preservative totally free. The best I have actually used are called Hylo tear.

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