Dry eye relief in New York City

Dry eye relief in New York City starts indoors. City rules keep apartment heat on from October 1 through May 31, and radiators and steam heat dry the air for eight months. Outside, wind funnels down avenues and subway trains push gusts along platforms. Run a humidifier, sit away from the radiator, shield your eyes on windy blocks, blink during screen time and use a lubricating drop as labeled.

Eight months of heat season

New York City’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development sets the rules for residential heat. From October 1 to May 31, landlords must keep apartments at 68°F or warmer between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. whenever it’s below 55°F outside, and at 62°F or warmer from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. regardless of the outdoor temperature.

In many older buildings that heat comes from steam radiators the tenant can’t really adjust, so apartments often run warmer than the minimum. Warm air with no added water has low relative humidity, and that’s a big part of why so many New Yorkers wake up with dry, scratchy eyes in January. Things that help in a steam-heated apartment:

• A small humidifier in the bedroom, cleaned as its manual directs.
• Moving the bed or desk away from the radiator if the layout allows.
• Cracking a window a little when the heat overshoots, rather than sitting in the blast.
• A radiator cover, which some people find softens the direct heat.

NOAA’s numbers for Central Park

The city’s official weather station is in Central Park, and NOAA’s 1991 to 2020 normals from it describe a city with real winters:

• About 49.5 inches of precipitation a year, spread across every month.
• About 29.8 inches of snow in a normal winter, with February the snowiest at 10.1 inches.
• A January that runs from about 28°F at night to 39.5°F in the afternoon.
• About 67 nights at or below freezing and 16 days when the high never passes 32°F.
• About 17 days a year at 90°F or hotter, with a July normal high of 84.9°F.

Humidity in the park bottoms out on April afternoons at 47 percent, with March at 50, according to NOAA’s table. Even in January the afternoon average is 56 percent outdoors, which shows how much of the winter dryness New Yorkers feel is created indoors.

Wind between the buildings

Central Park itself is one of the calmest stations in NOAA’s wind table, averaging roughly half the wind speed recorded at LaGuardia and JFK, where the airports sit open to the water. Street level in Midtown or the Financial District is another matter: tall buildings can channel gusts down avenues and around corners, and the walk from Penn Station to an office on a February morning can feel like a wind tunnel.

Wind speeds the evaporation of tears. Sunglasses help even on overcast days, and so does turning your head when a gust comes around a corner. On the Staten Island Ferry or the walkways of the Brooklyn Bridge, the open water adds more. Our guide to dry air, wind and altitude explains why moving air matters.

Why do my eyes hurt on the subway?

Subway platforms have their own weather. Arriving trains push a wall of air along the platform, carrying dust from the tunnels, and summer platforms trap heat. Then the car itself runs hard air conditioning in July and dry heat in January. A few habits that help:

• Stand back from the platform edge and look away from the tunnel as the train comes in.
• If your eyes feel gritty after a ride, blink several times rather than rubbing.
• Read in shorter stretches on a long commute and look up between stops.
• Keep a bottle in a bag pocket with the cap snapped on, not loose in a coat.

Screens, offices and summer air conditioning

A lot of New York works long hours on screens, in finance, media, tech, law and design. Concentration reduces blinking, and office air conditioning dries the air through the summer. Look away from the monitor every so often, keep the screen slightly below eye level, and ask facilities to adjust a vent that blows across your desk. For multi-screen setups, see dry eyes with multiple monitors.

Quell and its label

Quell is designed to reinforce the tear film’s oil layer to help reduce moisture loss, and it contains no preservatives. Its Drug Facts panel lists the Uses as For use as a protectant against further irritation or to relieve dryness of the eye, and the directions say: Apply 1 drop 3 times per day in each eye. Read the caution before buying: Caution should be used in those with egg or bird allergies — For use in the eyes only. The storage line, Store between 15° to 30°C (59° to 86°F), matters in an apartment where the radiator shelf gets hot, so keep the bottle in a drawer across the room. The full panel is on the Drug Facts page.

Getting Quell delivered in New York

Quell ships from Brentwood, Tennessee, to all five boroughs and the rest of New York State. Checkout works as a guest, shipping is $10.00, and 3 or more bottles ship free. You’ll get a tracking email, though no delivery date is promised. If your building has no doorman or package room, consider shipping to your office. The New York City page and the New York State page have the details.

When to see a New York eye doctor

Eye drops don’t replace an exam when symptoms keep returning. The label is specific: 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. If something blew into your eye on the platform and it still hurts, or your vision has changed, get seen promptly.