You’ll find your eyes return to normal during the day, but if they don’t, it might be that you’ve got something else going on. If that’s the case, it’s always worth having your doctor take a look, especially if it gets really bad, doesn’t go away, is painful or interferes with your vision.
The symptoms of puffy eyes will be familiar to you:
- Puffiness or swelling of the upper and lower eyelids, usually in the morning.
- Occasionally accompanied by itching and/or redness.
- Not able to open or close the eyes easily
What causes puffy eyes?
The skin around your eye is very sensitive, thin, and full of blood vessels. It can be affected by any number of things, from too much alcohol to too much salt. Here are some typical causes for puffy eyes:
- Fluid retention caused by illness, inflammation, fatigue or even too much salt
- Dehydration – this is most often caused by having a few too many drinks.
- Lack of sleep – tired eyes are puffy eyes
- Crying – emotional tears are less salty than basic tear secretions and the tissue in your eye. Through osmosis, the water moves into the saltier ocular tissues and makes them swell.
How to depuff your peepers
- Ice it!
Some eye creams and gels may work, but you’re probably better to save your money and use a good old-fashioned cold compress – it’s the thinking behind those cucumber slices! This is because colder temperatures reduce swelling – it’s the same reason why athletes ice their injured knees. By reducing swelling, you may find the puffiness is significantly reduced or disappears completely.
Try soaking a cloth with icy water and laying it on your face or gently rubbing your eyes with an ice cube. You’ll need to use your compress for about ten to fifteen minutes, but ice cubes should be used only short periods.
- Tweak your lifestyle
If you suspect your puffy eyes are being caused or made worse by a high-salt diet, with too much wine and not enough water, tweaking the way you live could work wonders. Too much salt makes your body hold onto water, which can make your eyes (and everything else!) puffy.
When you’re dehydrated – perhaps because you’re drinking too much alcohol – your body tries to prevent fluid loss. Again, more water retention and puffy eyes! The goal then is to keep water retention to a minimum, and you do that with a healthy, lower salt diet, rich in fruit and vegetables, lots of water, not much alcohol and regular exercise, especially first thing in the morning.
- Tap the puff away
You might like to try lightly tapping your under-eye area. It will gently encourage the collected fluid to disperse. Using your ring finger is a good idea – it’s a bit weaker than the others, so you’re less likely to tap too hard!
- Go to bed earlier
The biggest eye puffer out there: lack of sleep. Hitting the hay half an hour earlier could work wonders.
- Elevate your head
Eye puffiness is nearly always worse first thing in the morning because you don’t have gravity draining the fluid away from your eyes. Elevating your head while sleeping means you can make gravity keep working for you.
So, what about you? Any miracle fixes for swollen eyes?