Q) Why do dry eyes feel awful in the morning when I first wake up, especially if I don’t use an eye lubricant at night?
A) There are certain conditions that can get worse during the night with the eye in a closed state. For example, if you have blepharitis, which is caused by a common skin bacteria called “staph epidermidis,” the waste products of the staph are very irritating. But with your eye closed that staph toxin is lying there all night. If I have a patient who wakes up with really irritated eyes, one of the first things I want to look at is untreated blepharitis.
Another possible cause is called “recurrent corneal erosion.” Think about pulling a scab off all the time. It starts to heal and you pull the scab off. If the surface of the eye gets irritated through dryness and adherence to the back of the lid, or through an injury, that tissue needs to heal. The good news is it heals very quickly. The bad news is it hurts a lot as I’m sure you’ve found. So it heals quickly but it doesn’t necessarily anchor itself. That thin, outer layer of the cornea doesn’t anchor itself to the eye very fast, so you run the risk of re- irritating your eye even after you are feeling better. And when you do that over-and-over, it is called “recurrent corneal erosion.” You are basically tearing off the outer layer of the front of your eye. Classic sign is you wake up, you open your eyes and it hurts. Using ointments at night helps. Using an antibiotic ointment would help if you have blepharitis as well because it would treat that and give your eye a little more coating.
Dry Eye Tip!
If you have severe dry eyes and trouble opening your eyes in the morning because your lid is sticking, try to keep your eyes closed when you wake up 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 actually open up your eye safely. But if you wake up and open up your eyes right away, you run the risk of – ouch – pulling that adhesion off, again, like pulling a scab off of a wound.
-Stephen Cohen, OD
This article was first printed in the Foundation's patient newsletter for members.
Q) Why do dry eyes feel awful in the morning when I first wake up, especially if I don’t use an eye lubricant at night?
A) There are certain conditions that can get worse during the night with the eye in a closed state. For example, if you have blepharitis, which is caused by a common skin bacteria called “staph epidermidis,” the waste products of the staph are very irritating. But with your eye closed that staph toxin is lying there all night. If I have a patient who wakes up with really irritated eyes, one of the first things I want to look at is untreated blepharitis.
Another possible cause is called “recurrent corneal erosion.” Think about pulling a scab off all the time. It starts to heal and you pull the scab off. If the surface of the eye gets irritated through dryness and adherence to the back of the lid, or through an injury, that tissue needs to heal. The good news is it heals very quickly. The bad news is it hurts a lot as I’m sure you’ve found. So it heals quickly but it doesn’t necessarily anchor itself. That thin, outer layer of the cornea doesn’t anchor itself to the eye very fast, so you run the risk of re- irritating your eye even after you are feeling better. And when you do that over-and-over, it is called “recurrent corneal erosion.” You are basically tearing off the outer layer of the front of your eye. Classic sign is you wake up, you open your eyes and it hurts. Using ointments at night helps. Using an antibiotic ointment would help if you have blepharitis as well because it would treat that and give your eye a little more coating.
Dry Eye Tip!
If you have severe dry eyes and trouble opening your eyes in the morning because your lid is sticking, try to keep your eyes closed when you wake up 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 actually open up your eye safely. But if you wake up and open up your eyes right away, you run the risk of – ouch – pulling that adhesion off, again, like pulling a scab off of a wound.
-Stephen Cohen, OD
This article was first printed in the Foundation's patient newsletter for members.
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