Sleep is not a bonus, it’s a factor of health – it is critical in supporting every other system in your body, including your eyes! And while people often understand the side-effects of sleep deprivation (grogginess or foggy thoughts) they don’t often see those side-effects in the sense of their own vision. Just a few missed nights of sleep can create a chain reaction of eye-related effects – from minor irritation to potentially life-long damage. Here is how sleep deprivation is affecting your eyes and why restful sleep is critical to healing vision.

Night vision and blurred vision: Loss of focus
Your eyes work hard all day long, and use sleep to reset, recharge, and restore. When you sleep, the ciliary muscle that controls your eye relaxes, allowing the tear film to stabilize for sharp, crisp vision. If you’re missing sleep, your eyes can’t comfortably recover. This leads to blurred or unfocused vision quite probably during reading, driving, or any time you’ve stared at a screen. Eventually, fatigue and tired eyes will lead to visual activities feeling difficult, contributing to a loss in concentration and an increase in frustration. On top of that, individuals who aren’t sleeping enough may suffer a decrease of clarity, and their already existing vision problems become harder to manage or tolerate.

Dry, Irritated Eyes: Flare-ups with lack of sleep
Sleep is an important factor it keeps your eyes lubricated. Think about when you don’t get enough sleep: you probably have dry, itchy, or burning eyes. All of which, if left unchecked, can cause pain when putting in contact lenses and increase your risk of infection, like conjunctivitis. When your eyes look red and gritty, you haven’t had enough sleep. If you continue to ignore the chronic dryness in your eyes, you may also support more serious corneal complications. Adequate sleep ensures your tear film remains stable, protects your eyes from irritation and maintains healthy eye surface function.

Puffy Eyes and Dark Circles: Signs
Lack of sleep leaves an undeniable mark on your face. Poor blood circulation from not sleeping leads to fluid retention, swollen eyelids, and those awful dark circles. Repeated long days will leave you with visible fatigue, which indicates a body under stress, including the eyes themselves. You can try eye cream, but nothing will come close to sleeping regularly to correct and restore the circulation and, therefore, reduce all the under-eye swelling.

Eye Twitching: The Flicking Fatigue

Have you ever felt your eyelid twitch after an unpleasant night? A common symptom of sleep deprivation, this condition is called myokymia. Myokymia is a muscle twitch typically initiated when the body’s nerves and muscles have become fatigued enough to trigger an involuntary muscle spasm. In many cases, the twitch is annoying and persistent, although rarely harmful. Conditions such as stress and caffeine which often accompany sleeplessness can equally contribute to muscle fatigue. Consequently, rest is the best remedy for calmed, still eyelids!

Light Sensitivity: When Brightness Hurts

Sleep deprived eyes can sometime be hyper-sensitive to light (called photophobia). A news bulleting or the overhead light in your kitchen in the middle of the afternoon can frequently feel like a burning piece of metal gouged deep into your eyes, causing discomfort or harm! When our eyes are tired due to lack of sleep, they can take a longer time to accommodate to / however sheer glare causes discomfort when eyes eyes struggle to contrast the extremes of light. For individuals with a higher propensity to light sensitivity, lack of sleep may simply allow this aggravation to expand further into your day resulting in issues that limit desired functioning.

Also Read: Why Curd Is Not Good For You In The Rainy Season

Establishing Healthy Sleep Habits to Protect Your Eyes

Avoiding chronic sleep deprivation is imperative to your entire body health, and your eyes’ well being are no different. Chronic lack of sleep over time the effects on vision become noticeable, and not just in eye strain or blurry vision but sensitivity to light and even sensitivity to glare. Even if you are a healthy and young adult, ideally, you should be sleeping 7–8 hours a night to get the appropriate amount of nightly sleep to allow your eyes (and everything else) to rest and perform their best. When you prioritize sleep, you are not just recovering your body; you are protecting your sight as well.

Share

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
•