Dry eye syndrome is becoming an epidemic with more and more people experiencing dry red burning stinging eyes which can lead to blurred vision and fluctuating vision and it gets even worse here in the wintertime.
5 Tips: Winter Dry Eye
How dry eye syndrome can affect people at any time throughout the year but it gets particularly worse here in the wintertime as the wintertime air is very dry the humidity is very low and that allows the tears on your eye to evaporate much faster.
#Tip 1:
 |
| Humidifier |
Consider getting a humidifier keeping a humidifier nearby whether that be in your living room your bedroom or in your office next to your desk it gonna help to increase the humidity in the room that you’re in and that’s going to decrease how fast your tears are going to evaporate from the surface of the eye.
Bonus pro tip
If you are using a humidifier make sure you’re using distilled water and not just tap water as tap water will have minerals and different particulate matter that will get vaporized and that will end up in the air you could breathe that in and it can even clog the furnace.
#Tip 2:
Pay attention to where moving air is coming from particularly if it’s from a window a furnace or a fan as moving air will brush across the surface of the eye and therefore increase the amount of evaporation from the surface of the eye.
Same thing if you’re someone who sleeps with a fan blowing directly into the eyes make sure to turn that a little bit away so that air isn’t drying out your eyes at nighttime
#Tip 3:
 |
| Wear Sunglasses |
If you are going to be outside and it’s very windy out then you want to make sure that you’re wearing sunglasses or regular glasses some sort of eye protection that blocks from the side as the air that brushes across the eye again it’s gonna cause that evaporation so if you can have a pair of glasses or sunglasses with a face wrap around them that’s gonna add extra protection from
any wind coming from the side.
#Tip 4:
If you’re somebody with moderate to severe dry eye then consider them getting a pair of moisture goggles.
#Tip 5:
 |
| Artificial Tears |
if you’re somebody who is very reliant on using artificial tears to keep your eyes moist throughout the day then make sure you’re using a high quality artificial tear best to be using
the one that is recommended to you by your local eye doctor as they know the surface of your eye and which one is gonna probably work the best if you’re using eye drops more than four or five times a day.
It’s often recommended to use a non preserved artificial tear as these don’t have preservatives that can over time maybe cause ludic reactions and other problems to the surface of the eye in the winter.
We also recommend you gel drops or something that’s a little bit thicker that can stay and last longer on the surface of the eye rather than just again drying out really quickly the only real downside to these thicker drops is that they can cause blurred vision a little bit
Conclusion
Dry eye syndrome or keratoconjunctivitis sicca which is the medical term is often part of much more complex issues going on with the entire anterior surface of the eyes and even systemic diseases such as rheumatoid arthritisor Sjogren’s syndrome(immune system disorder) if you’ve been suffering from burning red irritated eyes or having really just bad dry eye symptoms make sure you talk to your eye doctor, get seen by either an eye doctor who specializes in the cornea anteaters segment or specializes in dry eye disease.