Live in Delhi? Or Mumbai? Whether you live in a city with a dry climate or other known for its pollution and dusts, your choice of city where you live can affect the dry eye reasons. Several environmental factors have been proven to impact dry eye syndrome causes, including high altitude wind, and air pollution.

Before calling your doctor for dry eye syndrome, consider the environment conditions that might irritate your eyes. You may be able to fix the problem by knowing the dry eye reason.

Lifestyle and environment factors that might be the dry eye syndrome causes are as follows:

Indoor - Your living area and work space are mostly heated or air-conditioned; a lack of moisture in the air can make your eyes red, itchy, and irritated. Poor lighting, indoor air pollutants are other causes that leads to the irritation in dry eyes. You can place plants in a dry room, or use a humidifier to regain the moisture. Mother Nature - Smoke, wind, dust, and extreme hot or cold temperature outdoors can make your eyes feel like trapped dust particles in them. Even places where the air isn't dry can be dirty with air pollution, which can dry your eyes out. Sunglasses with covered frames can help protect your eyes from more than the sun and atmosphere. Smoking - Cigarette smoke can irritate and dry your eyes, whether you're an active or a passive smoker. There's a strong connection between smoking and the disruption of tear film. Smoking also makes your eyes more sensitive. Contacts and Lens Solution - Wearing contact lenses and its solution often causes eye irritation as one of the dry eye reasons. Mostly contact lens wearers complain of dryness. Contacts lens should be regularly changed to prevent the protein deposits, which can leave your eyes feeling dry. Moreover, the solution you use to clean your contacts can also irritate eyes. Some solutions have preservatives that can be drying. Makeup - Any type of makeup or especially eye makeup can clog the openings of the glands at the base of your eyelashes that causes dry, gritty eyes. And the eyeliner applied to the inside of your eyelashes, these particles move more quickly into your eye. Computers and Electronics - Dry eye symptoms and dry eye reasons are so common among screen-gazers that most of the doctors are calling it computer vision syndrome. When you're reading or looking at a TV, computer, or smartphone, your screen time increases and that causes your blinking rate (or blinks per minute) to go down, you blink only about one-third as often when you're staring at a screen of any kind. Blinking is most important for two reasons: to restore the tear film and to protect the eye from dust particles in the air and dead cells. So the less you blink, the more your eyes will suffer. Dehydration - Drinking too little water can also worsen dry eyes syndrome, particularly during hot, dry, and windy weather. Too much alcohol can also have a drying effect. Hydration is the aim to drink at least 8-10 glasses of water every day. Diet - Diet is the most important lifestyle factor that affects the dry eye syndrome and become one of the reasons for dry eyes. Not enough omega-3s, or good fat, in your diet has been linked to dry eyes. Eating foods with DHA and EPA fatty acids found in cold-water fish such as salmon, tuna, trout, and halibut etc are one way to get your omega 3s. If you're vegetarian, omega-3 supplements may help. Lack of vitamin A can also prove to be the reason for dry eyes, so eat carrots and sweet potatoes, winter squash, and bell peppers. Studies suggests that people with low vitamin D intake, sometimes have dry eyes and problems with tears. Chemicals and Fumes - Volatile organic compounds are such kinds of chemicals or fumes that are harmful for the dry eye syndrome. These are mostly found in cleaners, solvents, paints, furniture, carpets, even dry-cleaned clothing. They evaporate into the air when they're being used or if they're not stored properly. Wood glue and adhesives for hobbies are typically made with formaldehyde. Permanent markers can have VOCs, too. When you're crafting, work with low-VOC products, if you can, and either open windows or run a fan in the area. Then, close the containers tightly when you're done.

Conclusion

Our lifestyle and environment factors play a crucial role in the dry eye syndrome causes. Various factors such as Smoking, wearing contact lenses all day, being in air-conditioned indoors, increasing the screen time on computers or mobiles, and unhygienic diet etc can be the dry eye reasons. So, try avoiding these factors to stay safe and with irritant free eyes.