What purpose do “eye boogers” serve? The little things that sometimes accumulate in the corners of the eye. What causes them?
Same as nose boogers - it’s your body’s way of keeping itself clean.
Bits of dust and what not get into your eyes so your body oozes out a bit of mucus to coat them to prevent scratching of the cornea and what not, and then flushes them to the corners of your eye for you to remove.
why are they mainly noticed in the mornings? instead of during the course of the day. I’d think that there would be more buildup, thus more mucus, while the eyes are open. Instead, the ‘boogers’ seem to collect while sleeping… any ideas?
May have something to do with the Rapid Eye Movements during dream state sleep. That could wiggle a lot of crud out. Other than that I have no clue.
Maybe it’s because your eyes aren’t blinking and such as frequently as they are during the day. At night, your eyes are basically at rest… and that will allow the “eye poo” to accumulate more… all this is just my uneducated guess, mind you.
F_X
They don’t flick as well.
Alice In Wonder land is correct.
The dried or semi-dried granuals are aka “sand.”
Has anyone noticed that the amount of eye crud tends to vary depending on where they are?
When I was living in Denver, eye crud was a way of life, and I had to remove long strings of gook every few hours. In Orlando, Kansas City, and El Paso/Las Cruces, eye boogers were never much of a problem.
Strings? Yuck.
Doesn’t Denver have a layer of crud that hangs over the city at all times? Seems to point to the eye ‘cleaning’ argument.
im pretty sure theyre there to protect your eyes, since there seems to be more of it after you hit or scratch your eye.
Eye boogers form near the ducts that connect to the sinuses. Could the increased buildup while sleeping be due to mucous having an easier time getting up there while a person is lying down?
Someone sleep standing up and then measure their eye booger mass, please.
I wear contacts.
I have to battle the eyecrap all day long. I live in the desert, and it’s worse when it’s windy (which is basically all the time).
During the times I wear glasses, the eyecrud is not nearly as bad in terms of volume or frequency.
Therefore, I feel that wearing contact lenses promotes eye boogers. Ahh, vanity.
So shouldn’t we call them “eye pearls”? 