Eli5: Why does it feel like your eyes are sandy, when running on little sleep?
In: 24
Because your eyes need rest like all other parts of your body, and aren’t getting it if you’re not getting enough sleep. Also, eyes being open more hours in a day can allow them to dry out more than normal.
Your tear ducts create a mixture of liquids and oils (tears) to coat, lubricate, and protect your eyes. When you stay awake longer, the quality of these tears worsens so your eyes will be more exposed to the surrounding air, causing dryness and irritation.
Sleep allows your tear ducts to recharge and go back to producing high quality tears.
Part of it is the loss of lubricity others have mentioned, but an other major factor is that during sleep REM helps to exfoliate dead cells on the surface of the eye and eyelids. It can help both problems, if you’re feeling this, to close your eyes and make figure-8’s with your eyeballs for 5-10 minutes.
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