What does you get red eyes in the event of a lack of sleep?

You see it immediately, in the morning in the lecture hall or at the coffee machine: Red eyes betray who went a lot of steps, worked late or just did not sleep enough. But what is the link between red eyes and fatigue? And can there be something to do about it?

We ask Siamak Nobacht, ophthalmologist at the Radboudumc in Nijmegen. « What you see when someone has red eyes, his tiny blood vessels that are slightly wider than normal, » he explains. « Normally they are so small that you hardly see them with the naked eye. »

Those blood vessels are not in the whites, but in the wafer -thin mucous membrane that covers the whites, Nobacht emphasizes. « That membrane is fine -meshed, just like with other vital tissues. The eye white itself consists of sturdy, white connective tissue that is hardly blooded. »

The eye white, also called the hard eyeok, is only a thin peel. It is such 0.3 to 1 millimeter Thick: the thickest on the back of the eye and the dunn on the upper and sides, where the six eye muscles attach. The filling of the eyeball, the glassy bodyconsists of a transparent jelly. Together with the Hard eye kug, it gives the eyeball its firmness.

« The anterior part of the eyeok is not white, but transparent. That’s the cornea, » says Nobacht. « There is no circulatory mucous membrane over it, but only a very thin layer of cells that is being renewed continuously. »

Our tear fluid keeps both the mucous membrane and the cornea moist to prevent damage. Dust, pollen, sand, but also bacteria, viruses and fungi: everything is washed away. « As soon as the eye gets too dry, a signal goes to the brain and we blink automatically. For example, the eye is always provided with a protective layer of tear fluid. »

The capillaries are invisible in a healthy and calm mucosa. But if the whites of the eyes gets irritated or inflamed, those vessels widen and the eye white turns red. « That is a normal immune response of the body, just like with inflamed or irritated skin, » says Nobacht. « In a red eye, the cause can be an infection, irritation or allergic reaction, severe exertion, but sometimes also fatigue. Fatigue is often accompanied by dry eyes. »

That’s because you sometimes unconsciously blink less. « For example, if you look at a computer screen for hours, or are dancing for a long time. And if you have sleep deprivation, your eyes are simply open longer. They will dry from that. Your tear fluid production cannot always keep track of it. »

Sometimes something is still playing: due to stress and fatigue, your body makes more cortisol, a stress hormone that influences blood circulation. « The blood vessels in your eyes can therefore dilate and become more visible. »

Is there anything to do about it, apart from going to bed earlier? « You can learn yourself to consciously blink a little more often during computer work or while going out, » says Nobacht. « But that is difficult: you don’t always think about it. »

There are also eye drops that let the blood vessels contract. « They work very well: your eye immediately turns white again. But we oppose the ophthalmologists. If you use such drops often, the mucosa gets used to it. Then the blood vessels will immediately open again as soon as you stop those drops. »

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