What causes us to get bags/dark circles under our eyes when we are tired?
In: Biology
Dark circles are just the blood that is circulating around your eyes showing through the skin. The skin under the eye is very thin, so subtle changes can cause these circles to appear. In essence, there are three main reasons why this can happen:
* your blood vessels dilating (low blood pressure). this can be because of inflammation such as with allergies or rubbing. when you have an inflammatory reaction, your body releases histamine, which causes a reaction to get as much of your immune cells to the area as possible. this will cause more blood flow, resulting in a lower blood pressure and dilated blood vessels. this means more of them show through the skin. it can also be because of heart medication or erectile dysfunction drugs which work by causing veins to expand. being tired will cause dryness and irritation around your eyes, which will lead to an inflammation similar to an allergic reaction, causing more of the darkness to appear, especially if you irritate the area more by also rubbing it.
* your skin getting pale. if you are not getting enough sleep, anemic, or dehydrated, your skin will become paler and that will show more of your blood vessels through your eyes.
* your skin getting thinner. this is mostly the cause of dark circles when you age.
Bags are caused by areas under your eyes filling up with water or fat. This is essentially a secondary effect of inflammation. Expanded blood vessels will cause fluid to accumulate and pool, and leak out of your blood. This is normally beneficial because the fluid will have immune cells in it that will help fight an infection or irritant. This is why injured areas will be red, hot, and swollen, but in this case it will cause these bags. In addition, rubbing your skin (as is common when being irritated) will exacerbate this, essentially mechanically squeezing even more fluids out of the blood vessel.
Couple of reasons. Tiny blood vessels are there, and it being the thinnest part of our body, the dilation from even the smallest thing can give us dark circles, such as rubbing them, allergies, etc. The sun also affects these reactions by tanning our tiny eye flaps. Sleep deprivation also causes the blood vessels to dilate so its obvious when you don’t get a good nights rest. And finally, genetics! If your family has pronounced dark circles, you’re more likely to have them as well.
Is there a connection between cigarette smoking and more pronounced circles?
And/or coffee?
I’m thinking of a few past professors who were never w/out the mug and butt, and they we all notably dark-circled.
okay question — what about lighter/white circles under the eyes as opposed to dark circles? have been suffering as of late and the internet in general has been of little help. has anyone else experienced this or know why it may be happening?
I don’t usually get them but if my asthma flares up the bags appear. No idea why and it doesn’t happen every time, only if my asthma is very bad.
I wonder if it’s because I’m not getting much sleep when I’m having an attack?
Can I piggyback on this and ask why people who do a signifit amount of drugs get such dark circles under their eyes? Or also look so pale
I’ve always had dark circles under my eyes regardless of how much sleep I’ve gotten, maybe because I’m naturally pale?
Digital camera sensors are more sensitive to UV light than film was, so photographs these days are more likely to show bags under your eyes than photographs in the film era did and even more than your eyes see in person.
My middle daughter had especially fair/thin skin under her eyes and in so many photographs she looks like a zombie even though she looked perfectly fine in person. It was especially noticeable when she was a toddler.
Okay, so who will be suggesting ways to fix dark circles? Thank you.
All I know is a great way to make them disappear is to wet a towel in very warm water and place it over your eyes (or face). The heat therapy helps the fluids dissipate. Maybe this is why barber shops do this too?
Latest Answers