If your eyes could talk, they might deliver that classically devastating “I’m not mad, I’m just disappointed” line. Even if you follow good eye care practices to protect your vision, like seeing your eye doctor regularly and wearing sunglasses, you could be sabotaging your eye health in ways you don’t even realize.
With that in mind, we consulted eye doctors on the top mistakes people regularly make with their eyes, plus how to fix them.
Unfair fact of the day: Even though it’s so easy to fall asleep in your contacts, it can be seriously hazardous to your eye health. People who sleep while wearing contacts that aren’t safe for dozing are at a higher risk of developing corneal infections (infections of the transparent layer on the front of your eye) than those who don’t. Sleeping in your contacts reduces the oxygen to your corneas, which is essential for keeping them healthy. What’s worse, your corneas don’t have any blood vessels to protect them from infection, according to the National Eye Institute, so they’re pretty susceptible to harm.
Consistently sleeping in your contacts also puts you at higher risk of corneal ulcers, which are open sores on the surface of your eyes. “Corneal ulcers can cause permanent scarring, which can lead to reduced vision,” Muriel Schornack, O.D., an optometrist at the Mayo Clinic, tells SELF. Cue endless internal screaming.
If you do happen to fall asleep in your contacts, try to remove them as soon as you get up in the morning, Dr. Schornack says. To make it easier, you can wet your eyes thoroughly with contact solution, close your eyes, very gently rub your eyelids, and try again, Beeran Meghpara, M.D., an eye surgeon at Wills Eye Hospital, tells SELF. Once your contacts are out, consider wearing your glasses for a few hours afterwards instead of swapping in a fresh set of lenses. This will let your eyes breathe more easily for a bit, Dr. Schornack says.
If you slept in your contacts and experience pain, sensitivity to light, discharge, swelling, or the contacts really aren’t budging from your eyes, don’t force it. Instead, see your eye doctor ASAP for evaluation. They can help you remove the contacts safely without damaging your eyes. (You should also see them if you removed the contacts but are dealing with any of these symptoms, FYI.)
This can irritate and even damage your corneas, opening you up to infections, Joy Domingo, M.D., global medical director at Johnson & Johnson Vision, tells SELF. Regularly rubbing your eyes vigorously also puts you at risk for an eye condition called keratoconus, which causes your corneas to become thin and bulge outwards, according to the Mayo Clinic. That can lead to blurred vision, eye pain, sensitivity to light, and worsening eyesight.
Also, your hands tend to be pretty freaking germy, especially if you don’t practice excellent hand hygiene. Touching your eyes with dirty hands could lead to an eye infection, Dr. Domingo says. That’s why she recommends washing your hands before touching your eyes to do something like insert or remove contact lenses, and doing your best to keep your fingers away from your eyeballs beyond that.
Between plopping in front of a computer for hours at work and reading up on the latest celebrity gossip world news on your phone after-hours, your eyes might be getting a serious amount of screen time.
Looking at devices for long periods of time can cause computer vision syndrome (also called digital eye strain), a group of eye and vision-related problems directly linked to staring at screens for too long. The most common symptoms are a sensation that your eyes are strained, headaches, blurred vision, dry eyes, and neck and shoulder pain, according to the AOA.
These symptoms can occur because you blink less often when you’re staring at a screen, which causes some of your eyes’ natural lubrication to evaporate, James Khodabakhsh, M.D., chief of the department of ophthalmology at Cedars Sinai Medical Center and CEO/medical director of the Beverly Hills Institute of Ophthalmology, tells SELF. Over time, this can contribute to chronic dry eye, a condition that happens when your eyes aren’t properly lubricated, according to the Mayo Clinic.
To lower the odds you’ll develop computer vision syndrome, the AOA recommends positioning your screens to avoid glare from lighting sources (or getting an anti-glare screen), trying to rest your eyes for 15 minutes every two hours of screen use, looking into the distance for 20 seconds after every 20 minutes of computer use to allow your eyes to refocus, and making an effort to blink often. You should also make sure your computer screen is below eye level so you’re not unwittingly widening your eyes to view it, which may dry your eyes out more quickly, the Mayo Clinic says.
When you’re exhausted, removing your eye makeup before bed can feel like running a marathon. Hate to break it to you, but it’s really important.
The American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) recommends removing all your eye makeup before you go to sleep, especially your mascara. If you use eye makeup remover, thoroughly rinse it off your eyelids afterwards, and gently brush a clean cotton swab along the base of your eyelashes to remove all leftover traces of makeup.
The main reason to follow this protocol is to avoid Meibomian gland dysfunction, says Dr. Meghpara. The Meibomian glands on your eyelids regularly secrete oil to keep your eyes lubricated, and things like eyeliner, mascara, and general debris can plug them up. If that happens, they can’t release enough oil. This can lead to dry eye and styes, which are pimple-esque bumps on your eyelids, Dr. Meghpara says. Cleaning off your makeup every night can go a long way towards maintaining healthy eyes, as annoying as it feels in the moment.
These drops can be bad news for your eyes, Tatevik Movsisyan, O.D., M.S., assistant clinical professor of advanced ocular care and primary care clinics at The Ohio State University College of Optometry, tells SELF.
Redness-reducing drops work in a very specific way: They’re vasoconstrictors, which means they narrow the blood vessels in your eyes, making the whites look brighter in the process, Dr. Meghpara explains. “It temporarily gets the redness out, but as the medication wears off, those blood vessels are going to get bigger again,” he says. As a result, your eyes get redder, you put in more drops, and you get sucked into a cycle. It’s a lot like the rebound effect with nasal decongestants that target swollen blood vessels.
Rebound effect aside, using redness-reducing drops doesn’t actually get to the root of why your eyes are so red, Dr. Movsisyan says. It could be due to dry eye or an infection like conjunctivitis (pink eye), she points out, or it could simply be that you stayed up too late the night before and your eyes are protesting.
If you suspect your eyes are red because of mild dryness or irritation, Dr. Movsisyan recommends using over-the-counter artificial tears without any vessel-constricting agents. They’re designed to simply wet your eyes, so you won’t have to worry about any rebound redness. But if your eyes are frequently red, you need to get them checked out by a doctor. On that note...
There are tons of reasons why your eyes might act up temporarily, like having allergies or a cold. But if you’re consistently dealing with dry, watery, irritated, itchy, painful eyes, or you’re having issues with your vision, don’t shrug it off.
Seeing a doctor will allow you to get a proper diagnosis and efficient treatment plan, Dr. Movsisyan says. That means when you do get into the office, you should be totally honest about your eye habits, even if you know they haven’t been stellar. Your truthfulness can go a long way towards helping your doctor make a diagnosis—and lower the odds you’ll have eye issues in the future.
Related:
