This Arctic Chill is Brutal

[DryInUpstateNY]

to be honest, being outside in the brutal code is actually soothing to my eyes.

My eyes have felt fine at the 25 degrees mark and up but as soon as it dips in the teens or less w/ the wind chill taking it to -10 or more, the eyes have been stinging again.

is this typical for dry eye sufferers?

mind you, the cold air outside doesn't hurt me really. it's inside w/ all the heating. is this also typical?

I think I need to take the hit to the pocket and buy those 7eye or wiley x glasses.

anyways, any other tips? I already sleep w/ a humidifier.

[Guest]

I think it's common for the cold air to feel good on sore eyes - kind of like a natural cold compress I guess.

And inside, the heating dries out the air, making the indoor humidity go very low - which irritates the eyes even more.

I have a humidifier running on my furnace 24/7, plus I sometimes supplement with a room-sized one right beside where I'm sitting. The higher humidity causes my exterior doors to freeze shut and the windows to sweat (PVC window frames luckily, so no worries about wood frames rotting from this), but it's worth it to be comfortable in my own home. (We had to thaw the lock with a hair dryer the other day just to get out hehe... usually the lock is fine though and it's just a matter of doing a good hip check at the door to dislodge the ice that freezes it shut)

[No tears in ATL]

Agree with SAAG. Cold air can be soothing if your eyes are feeling burny (kind of like chilled eye drops). The arid conditions in office buildings is what kills me. During the chill that hit us, humidity one day in my office was at 7 percent. I ran the humidifier all day and couldn't get it above 16%. For reference, the average humidity in the Mojave Desert ranges from 10 to 30% during the day.

Dry, forced air heat is killer. The only reason I can figure that offices are drier than homes is because there isn't anyone in there cooking, doing laundry, or showering, so everything stays dried out. Extremely low humidity indoors really is an air quality hazard, in my opinion. It brings on cold/flu epidemics, dries sinuses, creates static that can damage electronics, and dries out the eyes of workers (even those without dry eye) who are already suffering staring at screens all day. I can't imagine the amount of lost productivity worldwide due to dry air--would be an interesting study. Climbing down from soapbox, now. : )

Tips: You must take breaks with using screens. There is now way around this. Too much staring without breaks will hurt. You can try a warm compress in the middle of the day to get your meibom flowing if that works for you. Moisture chambers will make a world of difference. The Wiley X mentioned would be a good investment. Humidifiers are a must for your home and I alternate between warm mist types and ultrasonic (ultrasonic puts out a lot of moisture and can make you feel clammy at times, so I switch up). If you can get away with a humidifier in your office, great, but on extremely dry days (such as above), I'm not sure what the solution is.

[DryInUpstateNY]

so crazy!

It warmed up to 30 today and low and behold if my eyes weren't MUCH MUCH better. Heat in office wasn't on as much.

The office heat sucks. I work in an office w/ computer use all day. I do take frequent breaks and drink, no lie, approx. 140 oz. of water in the 8 hours I'm there.

I'm going to sleep well tonight and make sure I sleep in as much as possible as that's what exacerbates it for me (lack of sleep).

I don't have MGD so the warm compresses do nothing for me aside from the moisture.

thanks.