Lily Miller When you wake up, your eyes might be scratchy and watery. If you have to get up early for a meeting or to leave for work in the morning, it can be inconvenient. When you wake up with pain in your eyes, your body has alerted you via the trigeminal nerve, which runs from the brain to the face.
But, why do my eyes hurt when I wake up? It maybe Allergies, Dry Eyes, Angle Closure Glaucoma, Conjunctivitis, Blepharitis, Angle Closure Glaucoma, Recurrent Epithelial Erosion, Injury, Eyestrain.
Please read on.
Table of Contents
Why Do My Eyes Hurt When I Wake Up?
This isn’t a complete list of all eye-related conditions, but these are some common causes of morning eye pain. The best person to identify and treat your condition is a doctor, particularly an optometrist.
Allergies
Allergies can undoubtedly contribute to morning eye pain, whether you have seasonal allergies or the cat you adore is causing them to flare up. Inflammation, itching, and redness are typical signs of allergies in the eyes.
Your allergy symptoms can be significantly reduced by using antihistamines or prescription medication.
Dry Eyes
The likelihood of developing dry eyes increases with age. Particularly if they are pregnant, women are more likely to experience dry eyes. Dry eyes can also be brought on by menopause and birth control pills. Other causes of dry eyes include:
- Poor tear quality
- Inability to close eyes completely while sleeping (nocturnal lagophthalmos)
- Inadequate tears
Angle Closure Glaucoma
Your iris enlarges as a result of angle closure glaucoma, which can also cause nausea, severe headaches, and blurred vision in more advanced cases. Treat acute angle closure glaucoma as an emergency that needs to be treated right away.
Conjunctivitis ( Pink Eye )
When your eyelids and eyeball membrane become infected, it results in pink eye, which causes pain and a reddish appearance. There are many types of pink eye, depending on the causes:
- Chlamydial conjunctivitis
- Allergic conjunctivitis
- Bacterial conjunctivitis (non-gonococcal)
- Gonococcal conjunctivitis
- Viral conjunctivitis
Read about Can You Get Pink Eye From A Fart?
Blepharitis
It might not be an issue with your eye itself if your eyes hurt when you wake up. Your eyelid might be the source of the problem.
The condition known as blepharitis, which causes the eyelids to swell, typically impacts both eyes. The most typical signs include redness, itching, discomfort, and crusting.
Chronic blepharitis is a disease. Fortunately, it doesn’t spread and shouldn’t impair your vision. You are more likely to develop pink eye, cysts, and dry eyes as a result.
Angle Closure Glaucoma
You might have angle closure glaucoma if your eye has never hurt before and starts hurting when you first wake up. This is a medical emergency, and it needs to be handled right away.
When your iris enlarges and obstructs your cornea’s drainage pathway, angle closure glaucoma develops. Due to inadequate fluid drainage, this causes your eye’s pressure to increase.
Although acute angle closure glaucoma can occur suddenly and needs to be treated as an emergency, if you naturally have narrow drainage angles, you may also experience gradual development of this condition.
It’s not just eye pain you’ll experience with acute angle closure glaucoma. You’ll be alerted to the need for immediate medical attention if you experience a severe headache, nausea, vomiting, or blurred vision.
Recurrent Epithelial Erosion
A corneal eye injury leads to recurrent epithelial erosion syndrome. A blister could develop on the wound if this wound doesn’t heal properly. The blister’s top may adhere to your eyelid while you sleep, and when you open your eyes in the morning, it may have torn open.
When you wake up, your eyes may occasionally hurt for this reason. Even months or years after your initial injury, you can develop recurrent epithelial erosion syndrome. And as the name implies, it may come up repeatedly.
Your doctor might advise you to take an antibiotic drop to prevent infection and a pupil-dilating drop to ease uncomfortable iris spasms. Additionally, you can take over-the-counter pain relievers like aspirin or ibuprofen.
If you frequently experience epithelial erosion, using eye drops and creams on a regular basis is the only real way to prevent this.
Injury
It can be excruciatingly painful to have something foreign in your eye. Anything that shouldn’t be in your eye, like an eyelash or dust, can harm it. If you get hurt while sleeping with your eyes open, you might feel pain when you wake up.
Because they can impair your vision and result in further harm, eye injuries should always be taken seriously. If you are unable to blink the object out, get medical help right away. You run the risk of hurting yourself more if you attempt to remove large foreign objects from your eye on your own.
Eyestrain
Long-term eye straining activities will make your eyes hurt in the morning. Using a smartphone, a TV, a computer monitor, or even being in the sun without sunglasses are a few examples.
How To Treat?
The cause of eye strain affects how it is treated. So cause by cause, here are ways to treat painful eyes:
- Allergies: Avoid or remove the allergen-causing item from your environment. In the short term, buying oral allergy medications at the nearby pharmacy may help. Even though they take around two weeks, eye drops are sufficient. Antihistamines ought to be useful.
- Angle closure: its severe form warrants topical steroid initially and laser or incisional surgical therapy.
- Caused by bacteria: Antibiotics, which treat bacterial infections, may be suggested by your doctor. Cheap and effective antibiotics include gentamicin and sulfacetamide.
- Caused by virus: Keep up good hygiene by washing your hands with soap and water. To stop the virus from infecting others, you should take off about two weeks from work.
- Blepharitis (eyelids inflammation): You can massage the eyelids and clean the eyes using diluted baby shampoo. It also helps to rub the eye with a cloth dipped in warm water.
- Eyestrain: If you find yourself spending a lot of time staring at a bright screen or location, take breaks to rest your eyes.
Prevention
Avoid things that may cause a painful eye, such as:
- Take breaks to rest your eyes when using a computer to work.
- Lower the computer display so that it is below eye level.
- Refrain from smoking and keep your distance from smoke.
- Wear sunglasses in bright areas
- Avoid looking directly at a welding session
When To See A Doctor
If your vision and pain remain the same or worsen, it’s time to see your doctor for a second opinion. If your vision is fuzzy, you should also see a doctor.
Read about Why Does My Eye Hurt When I Blink
Final Words
Even though getting out of bed in the morning can be challenging, having burning eyes makes it even more difficult. In addition to burning, your eyes will be itchy, bloodshot, swollen, and bloodshot. This awful morning symptom may be brought on by dry eye syndrome, an allergic reaction, blepharitis, pink eye, or even an object in the eye. When your tear glands are clogged with debris or bacteria, you may also occasionally experience this burning sensation because they are unable to produce the tears and oils needed to maintain moisture.
Fortunately, there are simple cures for burning eyes. The key to receiving an accurate diagnosis and efficient treatment is to visit an optometrist who can examine your eyes and identify the source of your burning eyes. If your optometrist determines that you need to use Lipiflow or Blephex to clean your clogged tear glands, you should notice a change in your eyes within a few days. Your eye doctor might recommend therapeutic eye drops if the situation is more serious.
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