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Make sure you are getting enough sleep. Lack of sleep can exacerbate dry eye (or cause it!)
Stay hydrated.
Omega 3s may help.
Sunflower Lecithin may help.
Gingko biloba may help.
Making sure your eyes stay closed while you sleep. They have eye tape for this very issue. Weird, but it has helped some people.
Buy a bruder moist heat compress. The moist heat helps loosen up the oils that hydrate your eyes. This is probably the one that has really helped the most.
Chewing can also help with dry eyes. Chewing gum, etc. Another weird trick that seems to work. I mean, it's not the greatest, but can help for a bit.
BLINK! I almost forgot. When you're on the computer/digital devices, you drastically slow down your blink rate. Make a conscious effort to keep blinking, and when you blink, every so often blink very deliberately to remind your brain how to blink in the first place. We get into a bad habit of doing the "barely blink" when we blink, so we're not closing our eyelids together enough to stimulate the glands to release the oil. or tear film, sorry I'm super tired, I know I'm not explaining this properly. lol.
Hope one of those things will help give you a bit of relief.
Have your tear ducts sealed. Your insurance might pay. At the very least, have your ophthalmologist insert temporary plugs for a week to see if they help. If tears run down your face, your eyes aren't that dry and methods mentioned above should work.
If your eyes feel much better, then your doc can seal the ducts with a laser while you sit in the chair. Quite easy and painless.
Sometimes those seals open up. Then you need surgery to close the ducts.
You also might want to get a blood test to see if you have Sjogren's
I recently had an issue with excessive tearing even when my eyes felt dry (which seems kinda weird), stinging, burning , itching. My ophthalmologist said that tears aren’t just “water”, they actually have a little oil in them. The oil helps the tears keep the eyes lubricated and keeps the tears from drying too fast. There are ducts by the lashes that can get clogged, and that prevents the oil from mixing with the tears, thereby drying the eyes.
He prescribed an eye drop and said to hold a warm, moist washcloth on my eyes for a few minutes a couple times a day to “warm up” the oil so that it flows into the tears better. There also is an eye lid wash (or he said baby shampoo works as well) to wash eye lids.
What's the humidity level of your room? It's winter heating season. That can dry out the air more than you realize and contribute to dry eyes. They are constantly exposed to and losing moisture to that air.
Agree with the comments about staying hydrated and the "barely blinking" habit. Staring at something at the same focal distance (screens and/or TV) all day can definitely contribute to dry eye. An optometrist reminded me that using appropriate eye drops BEFORE you start staring at a screen and reminding yourself to turn away, flex and re-focus on other things to rest your eyes, taking breaks to stretch, and to re-apply the drops periodically can be more effective than waiting until your eyes are already irritated. By then you're playing catch-up.
Last edited by Parnassia; 12-10-2023 at 05:13 PM..
I know you said drops don't work well for you, but I found Systane eye drops to be a huge relief.
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