What’s the deal with getting dark rings under our eyes after we don’t receive enough sleep in the night? What’s the physiological reasoning for this? Is the skin there somehow susceptible to bruising, without sustaining a physical trauma? I mean, why is it because of lack of sleep?
And I have this odd hypothesis that everytime I smoke a cigarette, those junkie-rings come back; I’ve had them for months, since the last time I binged on a certain Colombian GNP of notoriety (that was hypothetical: in no way do I admit or state my involvement with illegal narcotics). I lost a ton of sleep back then, and made up a bit of it back, but that was weeks and WEEKS ago. I’ll quit the tobacco for a while to see if they stay away. If it works, then that’d be a damn good reason to quit smoking, cuz I hate looking like a zombie all the time.
No, I’M SERIOUS – how and why do rings form there? Somebody has got to know, or hypothesize. Thanks.
IANAD, but the skin under your eyes is very thin, allowing blood vessels to show more readily. Some people are also be genetically predisposed to dark under eye circles - I am, no matter how much sleep I get, I look like a raccoon without makeup on.
Maybe the ahem, Columbian products dilate blood vessels, thus making the circles more apparent? My experimentation in that field is lacking so I’ll leave the fieldwork to someone else. 
Allergies can exacerbate the dark circles around your eyes also, according to what I’ve read. I think it was an article about medical conditions that are usually indicators of “Oh, that just happens to people.”
I have dark circles under my eyes all the time. In college everyone thought I was a big dopehead and even now every few months someone asks me if I have a black eye(s). When I am tired its impossible to hide because my eyes get really dark. When I was younger it used to annoy me but now I figure I just have vampire in my lineage somewhere…
Dr Vail Reese on his site http://www.skinema.com says they are atopic shiners. He goes on to mention that soaking the area with used teabags reduces them. The following link shows some examples. Scroll down to the picture of Christopher Lloyd.
I thought the topic was Two black eyes, not enough sheep. I’ll be leaving now.