Why your eyes are crusty and stuck together in the morning
By Ally Daoud, Australian Optometrist and Dermii Co-founder
The short answer
Your eyes are crusty in the morning because you do not blink while you sleep. Blinking is what releases oil from the glands along the edge of the eyelid and sweeps debris towards the corner to drain away. Over eight hours with neither happening, oil, tears and debris settle along the lash line and dry there.
A small amount is normal. A lot, every day, usually means something is building up faster than it is being cleared.
Why are my eyes crusty when I wake up?
Three things stop overnight, and the crust is what is left behind.
You stop blinking. Awake you blink 12 to 15 times a minute. Asleep you do not blink at all. Blinking is the mechanism that moves oil out of the glands along the lid margin and sweeps debris across the eye to the inner corner, where it drains. For eight hours neither of those happens. More on blinking.
Tear production slows. Your eyes produce far less tear fluid overnight than during the day. Less flow means less washing away.
Your lids are closed and warm. Whatever is sitting on the lid margin stays put, in a warm enclosed space, and the watery part evaporates out of it. What is left dries into crust.
So the crust is not a sign that something went wrong in the night. It is the residue of a day that was never fully cleared, left to dry for eight hours.
Is morning crust normal?
A small amount is completely normal and almost everyone has some.
Normal looks like a little pale or cream coloured matter gathered mostly in the inner corners. It brushes away easily with a rinse or a wipe. It does not glue your lashes together. It is gone once you have washed your face and it does not come back through the day.
What is worth paying attention to is a change. More of it than you used to have, every single morning, or enough to seal the lashes shut, means more is accumulating on the margin than is being cleared. That tends to build over years rather than appearing overnight.
Why are my eyes stuck together in the morning?
Because there is enough material along the lash line to act like a weak glue.
Tears are not only water. There is oil, protein and mucus in the mix. Overnight the watery part evaporates from whatever is sitting on the margin, and what remains is a sticky residue concentrated exactly where your upper and lower lashes meet. Eight hours of that and the lashes bond lightly to each other.
If it happens occasionally, particularly after a late night, a cry or a long flight, it is not much to think about. If your lashes are gluing shut most mornings, the amount of material on the margin is the thing to address rather than the gluing itself.
Do not pull them apart. Hold a warm damp cloth over the closed eye for thirty seconds first and let it soften, then open gently. Pulling takes lashes with it and irritates an already irritated edge.
What is the difference between crust and discharge?
This one matters, so read it properly.
| Usually nothing to worry about | Get it looked at | |
|---|---|---|
| Colour | Clear, pale, cream | Yellow, green, or thick and opaque |
| Amount | A little, in the inner corners | Enough to seal the eye shut, or returning all day |
| Timing | Morning only, gone after washing | Continuous through the day |
| Eyes | Both similar, white, comfortable | One eye clearly worse, red, painful or light sensitive |
| Vision | Normal | Blurred and not clearing after a blink |
Morning crust is residue. Discharge that keeps coming back through the day, especially if it is coloured, is a different thing and it needs someone to look at it rather than a change to your evening routine.
If you have pain, light sensitivity or any change to your vision, that is a same-day appointment, not a wait-and-see.
Why are mornings worse than afternoons?
Because mornings are the honest measure.
Everyone talks about the afternoon, the 3pm grit, the burning by four. That is real, and it is a story about the day you have just had. Screens, air conditioning, a low blink rate, all stacking up hour by hour. More on the afternoon.
Mornings are different. Nothing has happened yet. You have not looked at a screen, you have not sat under a vent, you have not been anywhere. So what you wake up with is closer to a baseline, which makes it a better thing to pay attention to than the afternoon.
Waking gritty, gluey or crusty most days tells you something is going on at the lid margin itself rather than being caused by your day.
It is also usually the first thing to change when people start cleaning the margin properly, which makes mornings a good thing to keep an eye on.
What helps
The evening matters more than the morning here.
Clean the lid margin at night, not just in the morning. Washing it off when you wake up removes the crust. Cleaning the margin before bed removes what would otherwise turn into crust over the next eight hours. That is the one that changes things. How to clean your eyelids.
Take eye makeup off properly. Eyeliner and mascara worn close to the lash line are a large part of what accumulates along the margin, and the usual quick pass with a cleanser goes around that strip rather than along it.
Warmth in the evening. Sustained warmth, from a self-warming mask or anything that holds heat for twenty minutes, softens oil that has thickened in the glands so it moves more readily when you blink. Softened first, cleaned second, in that order. On warmth.
Give it more than a fortnight. Mornings usually shift before afternoons do, but the change tends to arrive somewhere in week two or three, not week one.
When to see an optometrist
Book something the same day if you have eye pain, any change to your vision, sensitivity to light, or thick yellow or green discharge that keeps returning through the day.
Book an appointment soon if one eye is consistently worse than the other, if the lid margin looks red, thickened or swollen, if lashes are falling out, growing at odd angles or crusting at the base, or if you have been cleaning the margin properly for a couple of months with no change at all.
There is far more to see with a slit lamp than in a bathroom mirror, and if something else is going on it is better to know.
Frequently asked questions
Why are my eyes crusty in the morning? Because you do not blink while you sleep. Blinking releases oil from the glands along the lid margin and sweeps debris to the inner corner to drain. Over eight hours with neither happening, oil, tears and debris settle along the lash line and dry into crust.
Is it normal to wake up with crust in your eyes? A small amount of pale or cream coloured matter in the inner corners is normal and almost everyone has some. It should brush away easily and not return through the day.
Why are my eyes stuck together when I wake up? Overnight the watery part of what is sitting on the lid margin evaporates, leaving a sticky residue of oil, protein and mucus exactly where the upper and lower lashes meet. Enough of it will lightly bond the lashes together.
How do I unstick my eyelashes in the morning? Hold a warm damp cloth over the closed eye for about thirty seconds to soften the residue, then open gently. Do not pull the lashes apart, as that removes lashes and irritates the lid margin.
What is the difference between eye crust and discharge? Crust is pale, appears in the morning only and clears after washing. Discharge that is yellow, green or thick, keeps returning through the day, or comes with pain, redness or light sensitivity is different and should be looked at.
Why are my eyes worse in the morning than the afternoon? Afternoon discomfort reflects the day you have had, including screens and dry air. Morning discomfort happens before any of that, so it reflects what is accumulating on the lid margin itself.
Keep reading
About the author: Ally is a practising optometrist in Australia and the co-founder of Dermii, an Australian lid-hygiene brand. The information in this article is general and is not a substitute for clinical advice. If you’re concerned about your eye health, please see your optometrist or GP.
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