Understanding Tired Eyes: Symptoms to Treatment
There is much in today’s life style that takes its toll on the human eye and many people experience tired eye symptoms without always registering them. It is important to pay attention to the problem that arise with the eye as ignoring the small issues can lead to bigger vision problems.
What are the indications of tired eyes?
Some people experience a burning sensation and a feeling of soreness in and around the eyes and complain that there is a sense of heaviness in the area. There may be accompanying watering from the eyes and sometimes there is excessive dryness. Blurring of eyesight for short periods of time may also be indications of tired eyes. Some patients experience related problems such as dizziness, headaches and even migraines in some cases because of the problem of tired eyes. A sense of fatigue around the eyes is the underlying root problem of all these symptoms.
Understanding the causes
Before we can move forward with dealing with the problem, it is useful to understand what causes tired eyes. This is a problem that can affect the young and the old although age does seem to play a part in worsening some aspects of the problem.
Tired eyes are the end result of any kind of sub-optimal use of the eyes. This can be from too much use of one kind, improper lighting or even pollutants in the air.
Smoke filled rooms, industrial smoke in the area and such irritants can make the eye weak. The cloudiness and makes the eyes work harder and there is also the reality of the pollutant itself irritating the eyes. The heating and cooling system in a room or building can also sometimes cause a reaction in the eyes. These systems sometimes tend to dehydrate the atmosphere and the eyes are quick to feel the impact of such a change in the ambient atmosphere.
Too much time spent staring at an electronic screen causes enormous eye strain. Those who spend long hours at the computer and those who watch a lot of television are bound to experience tired eyes. Excessively long stretches of reading can also cause the problem. In each of these cases, unvaried usage of the eyes makes it tired.
Another big source of discomfort is the level of lighting. If an area is overly bright and over-exposed to light it can cause strain and similarly where they is inadequate lighting and a person has to squint to see or read there will be problem in those cases also.
Treating tired eyes
The best thing to ease tired eyes is to rest them. So it is advisable to lie down with eyes closed with there is a sense of heaviness and blurriness. If you cannot spare the time or if the place is not appropriate for such a break, a warm compress can be pressed gently to the eyes. Take a paper towel and soak it with hot water. Wring out the water gently and then place that as a compress on the eyes. Do not rub the eyes or exert excessive pressure. The idea is to ease the tiredness.
Sometimes use of eye drops to increase the wetness of the eyes helps. This is especially true in cases where the patient is also experiencing noticeable dryness.
It is also a common-sense measure to alter one’s life style enough to avoid the source of the trouble. So those who watch too much television should watch less and those who tend to read in poor light should fix the problem.
Other than these measures, if the problem is accompanied by headaches or if it happens too often it is best to visit a doctor. In such cases, there is a probability of a deeper problem and it is best to have a doctor check out the eyes.