Home Remedies for Dry Eye

Home care is genuinely first-line for most dry eye - the everyday measures below are not soft advice, they are what eye doctors themselves prescribe for mild and moderate disease.

• Warm compress and lid massage. The single most useful home treatment, because most dry eye is evaporative. A clean cloth or eye mask warmed comfortably (never hot) rests over closed lids for 5-10 minutes to melt the thickened oils in the lid glands; then gentle massage along the lid margins - rolling toward the lashes - helps express them. Once or twice daily. This one habit changes more dry eyes than any bottle.
• The 20-20-20 rule. Every 20 minutes of screen time, look at something about 20 feet away for 20 seconds. It forces real blinks and breaks the stare.
• Blink on purpose. Screens cut blinking by more than half. A few slow, complete blinks every few minutes - close fully, pause, squeeze gently, open - re-spreads the tear film and the protective oil layer.
• Fix the air. Don't sit under a direct fan or AC vent; point car vents away from the face; a humidifier (or even a bowl of water) helps in dry, air-conditioned rooms.
• Position the screen lower. Looking slightly down at a screen means the eyes open less wide, so less tear film is exposed to evaporation.
• Wraparound sunglasses outdoors against wind and dust.
• Contact lens discipline. Reduce wearing hours on bad days, never sleep in lenses, and keep lens hygiene strict.
• Sleep enough - tired eyes are drier eyes.

What NOT to do, stated plainly:

• Nothing non-sterile in the eye - no rose water, honey, ghee, oils, breast milk or home-made washes. Eyes get infected easily, and some infections cost vision.
• Don't share or borrow eye drops, and don't use drops past their discard date (most multi-dose bottles: 28 days after opening).
• Stay away from the chemist's steroid drops - the ones that make red eyes "whiter and brighter" fast. Unsupervised steroid use can cause glaucoma, cataract and severe infections.

If two to three weeks of sincere home care hasn't settled things, the next step is an eye doctor, not a stronger home remedy.