# What Causes Dark Circles Under Your Eyes? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 18, 2000, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-causes-dark-circles-under-your-eyes/10619 "2000-04-18T14:36:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2000, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-causes-dark-circles-under-your-eyes/10619/1 "2000-04-18T14:36:00Z")
It’s getting annoying to stay out late only to have everyone at work comment on how you must have been out late because of those big circles under your eyes. Any way to stop this short of makeup? Just curious… ---
**Author:** ![Perderabo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a183cd/32.png) [@Perderabo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Perderabo)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2000, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-causes-dark-circles-under-your-eyes/10619/2 "2000-04-18T15:16:00Z")
I am blessed with dark circles around my eyes no matter how much sleep I get. I wear glasses with lenses large enough to cover the cirlces. The glass is not tinted at all. But oddly enough it disguises the circles rather well anyway. Yet another reason why I will never switch to contacts. Another thing that worked was a very intense tan. ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2000, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-causes-dark-circles-under-your-eyes/10619/3 "2000-04-18T15:55:00Z")
Most likely, the skin under your eyes is thin and allows the blood vessels to show through it. Not much you can do about that except pony up some books to a cosmetic surgeon. Or you could try some makeup. Sometimes the circles are caused by allergies. ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2000, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-causes-dark-circles-under-your-eyes/10619/4 "2000-04-18T16:28:00Z")
usually caused from lack of sleep. ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2000, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-causes-dark-circles-under-your-eyes/10619/5 "2000-04-18T16:34:00Z")
The medical sources I checked said that a lack of sleep had no effect on dark circles around the eyes. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2000, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-causes-dark-circles-under-your-eyes/10619/6 "2000-04-18T16:58:00Z")
Not to disagree with doctors since I certainly have no medical background myself but it does seem to be common experience that the dark circles appear (or worsen) when you aren’t well rested. Are the circles caused by another physiological effect that can be exacerbated by lack of sleep? Or is the whole dark circle under the eyes a collective myth? I.e. they’re there on their own and have no definitive cause? ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2000, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-causes-dark-circles-under-your-eyes/10619/7 "2000-04-19T05:40:00Z")
Let’s say that the evidence is conflicting from the basic reference sources I checked. From an article by B.D. Schmitt in “Clinical Reference Systems” 1 July 1999, the article states: “Overall, dark circles under the eyes are not a sign of poor health or troubled sleep.” However, in the 5th edition of ``` Mosby's Medical, Nursing, & Allied Health Dictionary, 1998 ``` in the article under “sleep pattern disturbance” one of the symptoms listed is “dark circles under the eyes.” Finally, a Harper’s Bazaar article (obviously one subject to scrupulous peer review) states that a lack of sleep helps gravity pull down on our skin and make the skin under our eyes thinner, exacerbating the dark circles condition. (For the record, the writer of that article didn’t use the word exacerbate.) Draw your own conclusions. ---
**Author:** ![h\_thur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/db5fbb/32.png) [@h\_thur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/h_thur)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2000, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-causes-dark-circles-under-your-eyes/10619/8 "2000-04-19T05:50:00Z")
Allergies cause dark circles as well as wrinkles under the eyes. ---
**Author:** ![SoMoMom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/41988e/32.png) [@SoMoMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SoMoMom)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2000, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-causes-dark-circles-under-your-eyes/10619/9 "2000-04-18T18:49:00Z")
In the allergy circles (support groups), people refer to dark circles as “allergy eyes”, while at my daughter’s pre-op appointment with the Ear, Nose, and Throat Dr., he referred to her dark circles as “adnoid eyes”. (He wanted us to have her adnoids removed along with getting tubes in her ears. The dark circles went away with only the tubes. 🙂 ) Anyway, it must have something to do with pressure back in the eustachian tube/adnoid/tonsil/sinus areas of the head. All of which can be effected by allergies. ---
**Author:** ![casdave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@casdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/casdave)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2000, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-causes-dark-circles-under-your-eyes/10619/10 "2000-04-18T20:29:00Z")
Ten pints of Bud and a good fight on a Friday night-does it for me ! ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2000, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-causes-dark-circles-under-your-eyes/10619/11 "2000-04-19T02:15:00Z")
I have heard that television and movie makeup artists know a trick that works: _Preparation H_ is applied to the area. I’ve never tried it, and I never will. * * * Work is the curse of the drinking classes. (Oscar Wilde) ---
**Author:** ![seriousart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@seriousart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seriousart)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2000, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-causes-dark-circles-under-your-eyes/10619/12 "2000-04-19T04:20:00Z")
I read somewhere (so you know THIS is on authority) that the skin of the face besides under the eyes becomes lighter (for whatever reason) and consequently the area under the eyes only appears to be darker. SOunds untrue, probably is, but just thought I’d throw my 2¢ in. clink clink.