Dry eye relief in Bristol, Connecticut

Bristol’s dry-eye seasons are winter, when furnaces and woodstoves run for months in the hills of central Connecticut, and spring, when NOAA’s records show the region’s driest afternoons. Long screen shifts at local employers add to it. Relief comes from humidifying indoor air, blinking fully at work, shielding eyes outdoors and using a lubricating drop as labeled. Anything persistent is for an eye doctor to sort out.

Bristol’s winters, from the station next door

Bristol sits higher and farther west than Hartford, so the airport at Bradley isn’t a perfect match. NOAA’s cooperative station in Burlington, the town just to the north, sits about 154 meters up in the same hills, and its 1991–2020 normals show:

• A January normal high of 36.3°F and a low of 17.0°F.
• About 142 nights a year at or below freezing.
• 27 days a year, on average, that never get above 32°F.
• 38.6 inches of snow a year, with February the snowiest month at 11.8 inches.
• About 53.5 inches of total precipitation, spread fairly evenly through the year.
• Roughly 6,107 heating degree days, a long, steady heating season.

That combination is a wet climate outdoors and a dry one indoors. Snow and rain keep the ground damp, but the air your furnace pulls in from a 17°F night holds very little moisture, and heating it makes the relative humidity inside drop further. By February, a lot of Bristol homes are dry enough that eyes, lips and skin all notice.

Why April can feel worse than January

NOAA’s comparative humidity table for Hartford, the nearest city it lists, shows an average afternoon relative humidity of 45 percent in April, the lowest of any month, against 57 percent in January. Spring sun warms the afternoon air faster than moisture arrives, and the March and April winds that dry out the yard dry out the surface of your eyes too. Pollen season overlaps with this stretch, and the irritation people feel then is often a mix of dust, wind and dryness.

• Keep a pair of sunglasses by the door for windy spring walks around Rockwell Park or the Federal Hill neighborhood.
• Shower or wash your face after yard work so dust and pollen don’t sit on your lids while you sleep.
• Don’t switch off the bedroom humidifier the minute the heat goes off; April afternoons are still dry.

Screen-heavy jobs in Bristol

ESPN’s campus is one of Bristol’s most familiar employers, and production, editing and broadcast work means hours of focused attention on monitors in climate-controlled rooms. The same pattern applies to manufacturing offices, healthcare billing and remote work at a kitchen table. When you concentrate on a screen, you blink less often and less completely, so the tear film has more time to thin between blinks.

• Every 20 minutes, look at something 20 feet away for about 20 seconds and blink slowly a few times.
• Lower your monitor so your eyes look slightly down; more of the eye stays covered.
• Turn the desk fan so it blows on your hands, not your face.
• Use break time to walk outside, even in cold air, so you’re not in one room for eight hours.

More on this in eye drops for computer users.

Summer at Lake Compounce

Connecticut History, the state humanities council’s site, calls Bristol’s Lake Compounce the oldest continually operating amusement park in the United States, open every summer since 1846. A summer day there means sun, chlorinated water at the water park, and roller coaster wind in your face. NOAA’s Burlington normals put the July high at 83.7°F, so heat plays a part too.

• Wear goggles in the wave pool and on slides if water stings your eyes.
• Rinse your face with fresh water after you leave the water park side.
• Strap sunglasses on for rides where they’re allowed, or close your eyes on the fastest drops.
• Don’t leave eye drops in a car baking in the parking lot all afternoon.

How Quell can help

The Uses on Quell’s label are For use as a protectant against further irritation or to relieve dryness of the eye. Quell is designed to reinforce the tear film’s oil layer to help reduce moisture loss, and its active ingredients are Glycerol (1.0%), Polysorbate 80 (1.0%) and Light Mineral Oil (0.5%). The directions say Apply 1 drop 3 times per day in each eye. Before your first drop, read the Drug Facts, including the line about egg or bird allergies.

In a Connecticut winter, the safest place for the bottle is indoors at room temperature; the label says Store between 15° to 30°C (59° to 86°F). A car left out through the night on a hilly Bristol street in January will be far below that range.

Ordering Quell to Bristol

Quell ships to Connecticut from Brentwood, Tennessee. Each order is $10.00, or free at 3 bottles, and you can check out as a guest. No delivery date is promised, so give yourself a margin before you run out. The Bristol page and the Connecticut page have more.

When to see an eye doctor

Dryness that tracks the furnace or a long edit session is common. Dryness that sticks around in July, comes with pain or light sensitivity, or affects your vision is something to have looked at by an optometrist or ophthalmologist. Stop use and ask a doctor if you feel eye pain or changes in your vision, if irritation or redness continues, or if the condition worsens or persists for 72 hours.