Why Do Your Eyes Water In The Morning?

Wouldn't it be terrible to wake up every morning to a bathroom sink that consistently dripped water? Imagine if that feeling persisted daily but with the drip coming from your eyes. For many with consistently watery eyes, the drip is a daily problem.

One reason eyes water in the morning is the very reason it's tough to open your eyes in the first place - the light. After being closed for hours, your pupils react to the sudden brightness of morning by producing tears. While the bright light of day could be a cause of watery eyes, so could dry eyesyndrome. Though known by a moniker suggesting parched peepers, dry eye syndrome is usually marked by eye irritation, which stimulates tear production and can be a major cause of watery eyes any time of day.

Another possible cause for overly watery eyes is that despite a perfectly reasonable amount of tears, they simply have no place to go. A blocked punctum means that the eye's drain is plugged so tears have nowhere to go but out onto your cheek each time you blink. The punctum leads to the eyes' tear ducts, which normally drain tears out of the eyes and down into the nose and throat. A blockage is usually something as simple as mucus or other "gunk" from a cold or minor infection, though an eye doctor can clear or probe to remove a blockage if needed.

What if the morning isn't the cause of your watery eyes, but rather they start to stream tears down your face as soon as you venture outside into an icy winter wind? Well, it's not just you personally who finds the cold air irritating - your eyes do too. The cold air dries out the lubrication on the eye and as a result, reinforcements are called in. One possible solution is wearing glasses to help keep the airflow from directly impacting your eyes, or even popping in some preemptive saline drops before heading out the door.

Regardless of the suspected cause, eyes that often stream tears could be the symptom of a more serious problem like ulcers on the eyes' surface, an infection, blockage, or other issue, so it's always wise to get a checkup from an eye care professional to ensure more serious problems aren't lurking below (or on) the surface.