Sleep eye crust is also known as eye gunk or eye discharge and, in technical terms, rheum. Eye crust is the mixture of tears, skin cells, and mucus that naturally occurs during sleeping. This substance happens to everyone when they wake up in the morning. In technical terms, the doctor says that rheum is a combination of oil produced by meibomian glands and mucus produced by conjunctiva. Whenever we are blinking our eyes, flush it away, but at night, we are not blinking for many hours at that time; mucus can build up. Eye discharge may be hard, wet, and sticky. Eye crust mainly collects in the corner of the eyes or along the eyelash line. Eye crust is typical in everyone, so you don’t need to worry, but if it persists and lasts the whole day, you need to show your eyes to the doctor.
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Natural Causes Or Sleep
Throughout the day, blinking, wiping away the old cells, tears, dust, and extra mucus from the eyes. But at night, when we are sleeping, we don’t blink, and our eyes are closed for many hours. At that time, the waste products are still in the eyes, creating a crust in the corner of the eyelids at night. The eye crust or eye discharge can be a normal body function. However, if you have any eye allergies, you will notice extra eye crust in your eyes.
Conjunctivitis Or Pink Eye
Conjunctivitis is the inflammation of the conjunctiva or membrane that lines our eyelid and covers the whites of the eyes. This condition is caused by yellow, green, or white eye mucus, forming a crust around the lashes during sleep. When blood vessels of the conjunctiva have become inflamed, it will cause our eyes to become pink or red. Pink eyes force our eyes to produce more mucus so that our eyes can clear an infection. Conjunctivitis can also be viral, bacteria, allergies, or caused because of environmental factors.
Blepharitis
Blepharitis is one of the causes of crusty eyes in the morning. It describes inflammation of abnormal production of oil from the meibomian gland or eyelash follicles. Thus, blepharitis is used as a technical term for eyelid inflammation. The symptoms of blepharitis are extra discharge of crust during the night, eyelids sticking together, eye irritation or redness, skin flakes.
Dry Eyes
Dry eyes are the common reason for developing eye crust in the morning. If our eyes do not produce enough moisture or tears, then our eyes become dry. Dry eyes form a crust by concentrating on excess matters like oil, dirt, mucus, dust particles. If you have dry eyes, you will notice more crust than you usually have in the mornings. If we stare at the computer screen and mobiles more and don’t blink our eyes much, we notice that our eyes become dry and form more crusts.
Home Remedies:
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- If you feel itchy in the eyes and want to rub it, then firstly go and wash your hand with soap and water because if you use dirty hands on your eyes, it may spread infection and increase irritation in your eyes.
- To remove the crust from your eyes, soak the washcloth in warm water and then softly remove the crust from your eyes.
- If you apply makeup daily, make sure that before going to bed, properly remove your eye makeup like mascara, eyeliner, eyeshadow, etc. Remove your eye makeup with remover, soap, or baby shampoo.
- If you feel eye crust or eye discharge during the daytime, use a warm moist washcloth rather than a finger to remove it.
- Avoid touching your eyelids, eyes, and face throughout the day.
Conclusion
Most people have an eye crust in the corner of their eyes when they wake up in the morning. So it is normal not to worry about it much. With home remedies, you can reduce these eye discharges. Still, if you feel irritation, redness, or pink eye, we recommend you go and have your eyes examined by a doctor because it may lead to any serious infection.
