For at least the last five years or so, I've been afflicted with this horribly annoying condition: if I don't get an average of about seven hours of sleep per night, then sometime around mid-afternoon my eyes begin to sting as if I'm having some kind of allergic reaction, and they'll continue doing this until I sleep.
If I have several nights of bad sleep, my eyes will begin to itch earlier and earlier in the day. The only way to make it stop happening is to get enough sleep to make up for whatever sleep debt I've incurred; then the itchiness goes away and my eyes are fine. In other words, two nights of bad sleep requires two nights of good sleep in order for my eyes to get better. On the other hand, if I get consistently good sleep for several weeks, then I can get bad sleep for a few nights in a row before my eyes begin to itch. It's as if I'm storing up sleep, and when I run out, my eyes punish me for it until I repay them.
The most frustrating thing about this is that even if my lack of sleep isn't enough to actually make me sleepy, it's often enough to make my eyes hurt so much that I have no choice but to try to get more sleep (which isn't always possible if I'm, say, at work).
I've tried everything I can think of to relieve the symptoms, including eyedrops and mid-day naps, and the only thing that works is for me to repay whatever sleep debt I've incurred, which often means I can't get any relief until the weekend (and sometimes not even then if I happen to sleep badly).
Does anyone else suffer from something similar? If so, how do you deal with it, short of just sleeping a lot?
Comments
This should help
You need this book. I've got a copy and meant to show it to you while you were here, but I forgot. Good stuff, and it's cheap, too! :)
I know what you mean...
I have the same problem. It doesn't happen every time I have a lack of sleep, but every now and then I experience it for a day or two. I don't have any suggestions, unfortunately. Like you, I have found that the only cure is to get more sleep. Good luck.
~Li'l Sis
Misused
The basic underlying problem is that our eyes are misused. The book I linked to above does a really good job of explaining it. Our eyes were made for mostly looking at things far away and occasionally looking at things close up. In the civilized world we look at things close up all day long, which stresses our eyes in bad ways. Our eye muscles don't get enough exercise, either, because of our lifestyles. Like any other part of the body, it's the contraction and relaxation of muscles that increases blood flow to an area, bringing with it the vital nutrients the tissues need. Lack of that means not enough of those things. Without adequate blood flow there isn't adequate oxygenation, removal of wastes, or production of fluids. Nothing works as well as it should, and everything deteriorates more quickly.
The book has all sorts of exercises that I regularly forget to do, but when I do them for a few days I see definite results. One of the therapeutic suggestions they offer that would probably help your immediate problem is the application of alternating hot and cold. Get a bowl of hot water and one of cold water, with a washcloth in each. Alternate holding one cloth on your eyes and then the other.
And now I'm going to go put MY tired burning eyes to bed. :)