When did you sleep last night? 12 am? Or do you keep turning and tossing, then changing sides from your right to left, then grabbing your phone at 1 a.m. till late at night scrolling through Instagram? You keep watching videos, images, memes, and trolls and you lose track of time. Have your eyes blurred or does it feel like they blinked at you more than ever before during any sessions, while watching movies or meetings? Well, that’s a pretty clear sign that poor sleep can severely affect your eye health. There’s a hidden connection between rest and your eyes that many of us tend to overlook, but it makes all the difference when it comes to our overall well-being.
We all know how important a good night’s sleep is for our health, but did you know that bad sleep can directly affect your eye health? Sleep plays an important role in maintaining the function and appearance of our eyes. The relationship between sleep and eye health is that sleep is very essential to your eyes for them to relax from the stress of the day. If they don’t rest enough, they cannot heal themselves, and hence there arise different issues.
Eye strain is one of the most common complaints of insomnia. Continuous hitting of screens for hours, especially in dim light or even at night, puts tremendous pressure on the muscles around the eyes. Without adequate sleep, these eyes don’t have a chance to recover, resulting in tired and strained eyes, which can bring discomfort, headaches, and even blurred vision.
When you’re sleep-deprived, your blink rate decreases. Blinking is vital as it spreads a thin layer of moisture across the surface of your eyes. Without enough moisture, the eyes can become dry, irritated, and even inflamed. Many people experience this as a gritty feeling, especially when they wake up after a poor night’s sleep or after staring at screens for long periods. This can eventually lead to a more serious problem, chronic dry eye syndrome.
Sleep is a natural way to heal the body. If there is not sufficient sleep, then the body and the eyes are not in a good state to heal themselves. When there is not enough sleep, inflammation in the eyes has been proven to be increased, which is associated with issues such as glaucoma and age-related macular degeneration (AMD). It has been proven that chronic sleep deprivation increases the risk for these and other serious eye conditions.
Your eye needs rest after working for such a long time working or doing things on electronic devices. That is where sleep comes in. Without it, recovery is hindered and the eyes might not be able to recover fully when you wake up. The outcome of this is that your vision might be fuzzy or foggy, especially in the morning.
Okay, so the next time you flip through your mobile phone or browse all night without sleep and rest, you know you put pressure on those eyes. You can never imagine life without proper vision, so do take care of them. If you face any kind of problem in your vision, are not getting proper sleep, or have frequent migraines or eye problems, don’t wait; make sure to consult the best cataract specialist in Malappuram and the best eye care hospital in Malappuram for proper advice and treatment. Your eyes deserve the best!