Why Are Your Eyes Feeling Dry So Early In The Day? A Guide For Contact Lens Wearers
When you wear contact lenses, it is not abnormal for your eyes to feel dry by the end of a long day. The contacts absorb some of your tears and also make it easier for them to evaporate off of your eyes, and this can lead to dryness. What's not normal, however, is having your eyes feel dry within just a few hours of putting your contacts in. If your eyes are feeling dry before noon, here's a look at a few possible reasons for your discomfort.
Your lenses don't fit your eyes properly.
Contacts that are too small for your corneas don't leave enough space for liquid to remain against your cornea. This leads to feelings of dryness. Your eye doctor should have measured your eyes to ensure you were given the proper size of contacts. However, mistakes do happen. People are occasionally sent home with the wrong lenses, and handwriting can be misread. Take a look at your contact lens box. The size and magnification should be listed on the front. Call your eye doctor to verify that the lenses you have are the correct size, according to what they prescribed. If they are not, your eye doctor can make arrangements to order you new contacts.
You're taking too long to put the lenses in.
If you're a relatively new lens wearer and it still takes you more than a second or two to pop your lenses is, chances are good that you're letting them dry out too much before you successfully get them in your eyes. If you don't get a contact in on the first try, rinse it off with solution to keep it moist before attempting to insert it again.
You're staring at a screen and not blinking enough.
Think about how you spend the first hours after you put your contacts in. Are you staring at a screen for much of this time? If so, the screen time could be to blame for the premature dryness. When you stare at a screen, you often forget to blink -- and blinking is what distributes moist tears across your eyes. Try limiting your screen time if it's not necessary for work. If you must stare at a screen all morning, remind yourself to blink more often. Also, take brief breaks from the screen every 30 minutes or so.
If you still can't figure out why your lenses are feeling dry so soon, talk to your eye doctor. He or she will examine you and help get to the bottom of the issue. There's no reason to keep being uncomfortable with dry eyes. For more info, contact an optometrist such as Robert A. Marini, OD.