Waking up with dry eyes in winter

Eyes often feel driest on waking in winter because the heating has been drying the bedroom air for hours, and a fan or a vent near the bed moves that air across your face. Changing the bedroom’s airflow and humidity can help. A lubricating drop can be your first of the day, within the label’s directions: Apply 1 drop 3 times per day in each eye.

Why are my eyes dry in winter?

Cold winter air holds very little moisture. Once a furnace, heat pump or radiator warms it, the relative humidity indoors drops sharply, and that drier air pulls water from anything wet, including the surface of your eyes. Bedrooms are often the worst room in the house, because the door is closed, the heat runs for hours, and nobody notices the air until morning.

Your eyes are mostly closed while you sleep, but the air still matters: the moment you open them, they meet whatever the room has become. The tear film’s outer oil layer is what slows evaporation once you’re up and blinking, and Quell is designed to reinforce that oil layer to help reduce moisture loss. The tear film’s oil layer explains the three layers. Winter mornings bring their own extra drying, too, like a hot shower followed by a blow dryer aimed near your face, or scraping the car windshield in a cold wind.

Dry eyes in the morning: what in the bedroom is drying them

• A heating vent next to or above the bed blowing warm air toward your pillow.
• A ceiling fan left on from summer, or switched on in winter to push warm air down.
• A space heater pointed at the bed.
• An electric blanket set high, which warms the air right around your face.
• A bed pushed against an outside wall with a drafty window.

Rearranging the room for winter

Small changes to the room usually do more than any single product. Try them one at a time, so you can tell which made a difference.

• Close or redirect the register nearest the bed, or fit a simple vent deflector so the air goes along the floor.
• Turn the ceiling fan off at night, or at least to its lowest setting.
• Set the bedroom thermostat a few degrees cooler at night, so the furnace cycles less often and pushes less hot air into the room.
• Run a bedroom humidifier and clean it as the manufacturer says, since a dirty tank isn’t something you want to breathe.
• Move the bed or the pillow end away from the vent if the layout allows.

Dry eyes in the morning when I wake up: the first drop of the day

Quell’s directions are three drops a day, and the label doesn’t set the times. Using the first one shortly after you get up is a sensible way to start a winter morning. A few steps make it go smoothly:

• Wash your hands before you touch anywhere near your eyes.
• Blink a few times and give your eyes a minute to adjust to the light.
• Tilt your head back, pull down the lower lid gently and let one drop fall into the pocket.
• Do not touch tip of bottle to any surface to avoid contamination.
• Close your eyes for a moment, then repeat in the other eye.

Quell may blur things for a moment. Put it in before you read your phone or start the coffee, not on the way out the door to drive.

What about using drops at night?

The label doesn’t say anything about using Quell at bedtime or while sleeping. If you wake up with dry eyes most mornings even after changing the room, ask your eye doctor what they suggest for the night. It’s also worth mentioning if anyone has told you your eyes don’t fully close when you sleep, since that’s something the doctor can look at.

Keep the bottle out of the bedroom cold and heat

A nightstand by a drafty window can get cold on a January night, and a shelf above a baseboard heater can get warm. The label says Store between 15° to 30°C (59° to 86°F). A drawer in an inside wall of the room is usually the steadiest spot. How to store eye drops covers more.

When morning dryness needs a doctor

Waking up with mildly dry eyes in a heated bedroom is common. Waking up with painful eyes, with lids stuck together, or with vision that doesn’t clear after a few blinks is different and needs an eye doctor. The label puts it this way: 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. For the rest of the house, see winter heating and dry eyes.