One reason eyes water in the morning is the very reason it's tough to open your eyes in the first place the light. After being closed for hours, your pupils react to the sudden brightness of morning by producing tears. While the bright light of day could be a cause of watery eyes, so could dry eyesyndrome. Though known by a moniker suggesting parched peepers, dry eye syndrome is usually marked by eye irritation, which stimulates tear production and can be a major cause of watery eyes any time of day.
Another possible cause for overly watery eyes is that despite a perfectly reasonable amount of tears, they simply have no place to go. A blocked punctum means that the eye's drain is plugged so tears have nowhere to go but out onto your cheek each time you blink. The punctum leads to the eyes' tear ducts, which normally drain tears out of the eyes and down into the nose and throat. A blockage is usually something as simple as mucus or other "gunk" from a cold or minor infection, though an eye doctor can clear or probe to remove a blockage if needed.
If you have watery eyes when you wake up, it could be something quite simple or may signal a bigger issue. Most of the causes can easily be explained; however, some may need further evaluation. Here are some of the common causes why your eyes water just after you wake up:
1. Light
When you first open your eyes, your pupils are widened due to the darkness while you sleep. Pupils stay dilated for a little while after you first wake up and tearing is a protective measure to protect your eyes from excessive light. Depending on the time it takes for your pupils to constrict, your eyes may water in the morning for a few minutes or up to an hour. This also happens because tears do build up during the night and have no way of coming out until you open your eyes and expose your tear ducts.
2. Yawning
On either side of your eyes, you have a lacrimal gland that produces tears. It is the tiny opening on the inside of your eyes, just near the bridge of your nose. This is called the punctum. The opening helps the tears flow into your eyes and helps to drain them into your nasal cavity. When you yawn, you tend to squeeze the inner corner of your eyes. This squeezes the gland and pushes tears out. When you first wake up in the morning, you tend to yawn as your body wakes up and this can make your eyes more watery.
3. Dry Eyes
Contrary to the name, people with “dry eye syndrome” may experience unusually watery eyes in the morning. This is because the dryness causes irritation to the eye. To combat irritation, the lacrimal glands tend to overproduce tears. After a long night's sleep, dry eyes tend to become more irritated so the glands step up production first thing in the morning.
4. Irritants
If you are exposed to irritants (fumes, cooking odors, smoke, etc.) first thing in the morning, you may get eye irritation and watering after you wake up. This is because your eyes have been closed and protected all night by your eyelids. If you wake up to excessive irritants, your eyes will naturally water to try and protect them.
5. Thyroid Disease
Having hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism can both cause trouble with your eyes. While having a hypothyroid or low thyroid hormone can cause you to have dry eyes that water due to irritation, hyperthyroid may result in eye bulging that causes your eyes to water due to overexposure to air. This can be worse upon waking up in the morning to the point of needing tissues, as if you were crying.
6. Eye Infections
If you’re suffering from an eye infection, your eyes may water to help clear bacteria or viruses from your eyes. With conjunctivitis, the eyes tend to crust over during sleep and are stuck closed. This may cause the lacrimal glands to produce excessive tears in the morning to help open them back up. Use caution with this as it can be contagious.
7. Allergies
Allergy levels are highest from the early morning hours until about noon. Depending on what you are allergic to, you may wake up with watery eyes in the morning if it is that allergen’s “peak period.” Morning environmental allergens include ragweed, molds, burning bush, thistle, tumbleweed, and sage. Try to stay indoors and keep your windows closed in the morning when pollen counts are high.
8. Radiation Treatments
If you are undergoing any kind of routine radiation treatments for any reason, this can cause excessive eye watering. This is especially bothersome if you are receiving radiation to the head, neck, eye area, and other areas of the upper body. Radiation can also cause dry eye syndrome that causes excess watering.
Treatment depends on how severe the problem is and the cause. In mild cases, doctors may recommend just watchful waiting, or doing nothing and monitoring the patient's progress. Different causes of watering eyes have specific treatment options:
- Irritation: If the watering eye is caused by infective conjunctivitis, the doctor may prefer to wait for a week or so to see if the problem resolves itself without antibiotics.
- Trichiasis: An inward-growing eyelash, or some foreign object that lodged in the eye, the doctor will remove it.
- Ectropion: The eyelid turns outwards - the patient may need to undergo surgery in which the tendon that holds the outer eyelid in place is tightened.
- Blocked tear ducts: Surgery can create a new channel from the tear sac to the inside of the nose. This allows the tears to bypass the blocked part of the tear duct. This surgical procedure is called dacryocystorhinostomy (DCR).
|
|
|