10 Possible Causes of Red Eye

Ever look in the mirror and see two red eyes staring back at you? Wondering what’s giving you that red eye? Let’s find out about the possible causes of red eyes.

1. Not Enough Sleep

Whether you stayed up late watching TV or spent half the night turning, your eyes will probably look a little bloodshot in the morning. The eyes need to be closed for an extended period of time for your tear layers to regenerate and replenish. However, the loss of tears leads to red eye.

2. Seasonal Allergies

Allergens like pollen and grass can cause swelling and inflammation in your eyes, which can lead to redness. Because allergies also tend to make your eyes scratchy, you end up rubbing them, which creates even more inflammation and redness.

3. You’re a Smoker or Came into Interaction With

Cigarette smoke causes the blood vessels in your eyes to contract, which dries out the surface of your eyes. When your body senses the dryness and lack of blood flow, it tries to pay off by expanding your blood vessels. And that means more eye redness.

4. After Swimming Effects

The salt in ocean water can also be the cause of red eye. Whereas, pools contain caustic chemicals, like chlorine, that actually kill off some of the good bacteria in your eyes. This can lead to irritation and redness.

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5. Dry Eyes

Dry eyes could be one of the leading causes of red eye. When your eyes are dry, they become irritated and inflamed. It’s that inflammation that causes the redness of the eyes.

Dry eye is more common in adults over fifty years of age, but it often affects younger people who spend a lot of time staring at computer screens. In General, “We don’t blink as much when we look at screens, which causes eye dryness”.

6. Wrong Medication

Antihistamines aren’t the only pills that can potentially dry out your eyes and leave them red. Sleeping pills, anti-anxiety medicines, and even pain relievers like aspirin or ibuprofen can also cause eye dryness and redness.

7. Smoking is the Reason of Red Eye

It’s not just the fact that you didn’t get home until daybreak.

Smoking causes your heart to beat abnormally faster, that allows more blood to flow through the vessels in your eyes, so they look redder.

8. You Have Pink Eyes

Pink eye or conjunctivitis, is a viral or bacterial infection that can strike in one or both eyes. It’s highly spreadable, so it’s easy to spread from one eye to the other by just rubbing your eyes.

9. You Popped a Blood Vessel

Popped blood vessels can happen if you were draining (like coughing extremely), if you slept in a weird position that put a lot of pressure on your eye, or experienced some kind of shock—like getting punched or being in a car accident. But popped blood vessels aren’t actually serious—they just look bad.

10. Sun Exposure

Overexposure to ultraviolet rays can burn the front surface of the eye and cause a painful redness. Even overexposure to bright lights can cause red eyes. This condition, which is called a flash burn, can cause pain, sensitivity to light, unclear vision, wetting of your eyes, and a persistent feeling in the eye along with redness.

Prevention

Most cases of eye redness can be prevented by using proper sanitization and avoiding irritants that can cause redness.

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