If you have ever felt that your eyes were tired and heavy, it may be the result of a number of factors. We can call it an Eye Strain. In this article, we can verify some of the most common causes and remedies of tired and heavy eyes.
You do not need to panic about this problem, in most cases, it will go away once you rest your eyes or take other steps to reduce your eye discomfort. In the remaining cases, tiredness and heaviness of the eyes due to the underlying eye condition that requires treatment.
Causes of tired and heavy eyes
Here we discuss some of the most common causes of why your eyes feel tired and heavy. Go through the below reason and it might be the reason for your eyes feel tired and heavy.
Lack of sleep and tired eyes
Lack of sleep or insomnia leads to heavy eyes, which result in the tiredness of your eyes. The eyes produce fewer tears after a night of insufficient sleep. This may also lead to eye infections. You may experience eye heaviness and weakness on the eyes and looks older when you have not had enough sleep.
How to solve:
Sleep at least 6 to 8 hours per day, will automatically diminish your fatigue and the heavy feel of your eyes
Long staring on digital devices
If you spare a long time looking at the bright light such as TV, Smart Phones, Computer, game console, etc, can leads to fatigue and heavy eyes. People who spend more than two hours on digital screens each day have the greatest risk of this condition.
How to solve:
- Blink your eyes frequently, while using digital screens, blinking helps to maintain moisture on your eyes
- Maintain good posture while using digital screens
- View digital screens at ideal distances and angles
- Use devices that have less glare or reflection
- You can opt for Computer glasses or blue-light glasses which may aid to decrease the eyestrain that occurred from constantly looking on digital screens.
Effects of a long drive on eyes
Eye strain may experience if you drive long hours. Focusing on a point for a long time will cause a lack of moisture on the eyes and experience weakness and heaviness of the eyes
How to solve: Wear polarized sunglasses. The glasses will help to depolarize the light reflected from the dashboard and the windshield. These polarized sunglasses eliminate veiling glare and reduce the glare from the dash and road.
Allergies
If you are prone to allergy, the changes to feel tired eyes is more. During allergic conditions, it releases a chemical called histamine which dilates the blood vessels in the eyes. Histamine can also cause inflammation and swelling in the eyes. The factors will divert to heaviness and weakness of the eyes.
How to solve it: Consult an ophthalmologist as early as possible
Problems with eyesight and tired eyes
Vision problems can affect anyone irrespective of their age. The chances of eye strain are significant in persons who have pre-existing problems with eyes. In some cases, several conditions of the eyes may point the effects of tired eyes more disruptive and noticeable. If you have any of these vision problems, you may get difficulty focussing, then the people try more and more even to focus, which affects the already weakened eye muscles be weakened further, which will results in more vision problems, like eye tiredness, and stress on the eye muscles
People who have headaches, dry eyes, migraines, and vision problems will a high chance to have very compromised eyes.
How to solve it: Seek medical help
Muscle stress and tired eyes
Our eye has several muscles which to help us to focus on a particular object, same like all other muscles on the body, they also required rest periods, and they need to be work in ideal conditions.
Ciliary muscles are responsible for the movement of the muscles, which means constricting for near vision and dilatation for focusing on faraway objects. Extraocular muscle’s duty is to move the eyes from side to side. When people move their eyes quickly back and forth then the eye muscles will become stressed. When you focus on a small object, or on a screen in a darker environment, will increase your eye stress and leads to heaviness and tiredness.
How to solve:
- Avoid factors with cause stress to the muscles like looking at the object for a long time
- Maintain good posture while reading, driving, and focusing on screens
- Seek medical help, if your problem not resolved by the above
Other underlying problems of tired and heavy eyes
There are many other underlying problems, that may cause tied and heavy eyes. Migraine is a medical condition in which headache or pain intensity varies and having the symptoms of sensitivity to light, pain in the eyes, and tiredness and heaviness on the eyes. In most cases, the effects and intensity of tired eyes will usually resolve during rest while migraine symptoms tend to last a long time. Moreover, the signs and symptoms related to migraine headaches cannot be relieved by resting, it required medical treatment.
Tension headache is another problem that causes tired eyes. Tight band pressure around the head the most common symptom of tension headache,on the forehead, sometimes eye strain may lead to tension headaches. A person who has a tension headache, the chances of heaviness and tired eyes are very high This headache can be relieved by analgesics (pain relief medication) but the eye strain will and tiredness will relive by proper eye rest.
Fatigue is one of the common causes of tired and heavy eyes. Weariness, tiredness, and insomnia will increase the difficulty to focus the eyes on an object/text or a moving target, then naturally you will try even more to focus, and the more you try, you feel heaviness on the eyes. This can be reduced by simple rest and sleep. Frequently closing the eyes and not targeting anything will aid the eye muscles to relieve the stress and restore health.
A medical condition known as conjunctivitis is a viral contagious infection in which the sclera becomes pink and forms crust around the eyes. The symptoms include itchiness, light sensitivity, and pain, People who are suffering from conjunctivitis might also have tiredness and heaviness over the eyes.
