Eye discharge, or “sleep” in your eyes, is a mix of mucus, oil, skin cells and other debris that accumulates in the corner of your eye while you sleep. It can be wet and sticky or dry and crusty, depending upon how much of the liquid in the discharge has evaporated.
Crusty eyelids or eyelashes happen when discharge from the eye dries on the covers and lashes.
Crusty Eyelid or Eyelashes may be related to:
- Blepharitis
- Blocked Tear Duct
- Conjunctivitis (Pink Eye).
What Causes Crusty Eyes in the Morning?
Crusty eyes in the morning is a common condition for children and adults alike. If it continues you should mention this to your children’s doctor on your next check out. Similar to any symptoms regarding the eye, they need to be taken seriously. See your doctor emergently if there is any vision modification, eye pain or redness in the eye. These alerting symptoms may indicate a disease that could cause loss of vision.
The crusty eyes of the early morning are typically from eye discharge that builds up and subsequently dries out over night. For that reason the concern is: why there is eye discharge? There is a normal quantity of tears that your body produces to dampen and oil the eyes, for that reason a small amount of discharge/crusty is expected. There are scenarios where people have increased eye discharge therefore increased crustiness. Eye infections, such as conjunctivitis, can cause this, either from a bacterial or viral cause. Typically this is one eye just. If this holds true than your doctor can treat this with eye drops, however this rarely is a chronic problem.
Another possibility is allergies, which can increase eye discharge in both eyes. People can be allergic to typical substance like laundry cleaning agents or the pillow’s filling. The majority of the time there will be other symptoms (runny nose or cough as well). In children, another issue is that the tear drain system has actually not developed totally. This occurs in 5% approximately of children but a lot of children outgrow this.
While most likely normal, the crusty early morning eyes can be a sign of other eye conditions. Discuss your worry about your children’s doctor.