Nothing startles, quite like the feeling of looking in a mirror and finding a pair of red, bloodshot eyes, looking back at you. The most frustrating part is when you haven’t particularly done any strenuous activity to cause that redness. The good news is that in most cases, the cause of red or irritated eyes is harmless and can be treated relatively easily.
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Dry Eyes
Your eyes produce tears containing natural infection-fighting antibiotics every second. Blinking spreads the tears over the eyes’ surface before being drained through two small holes in the nasal corner of your eyelids. These tear ducts are known as puncta and drain tears to the nose and throat.
If your tear glands make insufficient tears, or they drain away too quickly, the tear film is spread too thinly over the eyes’ surface. If your tear glands produce enough tears but are of poor quality, they evaporate too quickly before the next blink comes along, which can cause irritation.
If untreated, damage to the outer protective tissue of the cornea opens a route of infection with the risk of permanent scarring and sight loss.