Eye/eyes won't open

[CountryMe]

I have no eye twitching! I have no eye blurness or vision problems! I have no eye pain except the discomfort of trying to open my eyes when I first wake up. This only happens when I am sleeping and when I first wake up that my eye will not open for a few seconds to a few minutes. This problem came on very suddenly as I have never had any problems like this before and started with just one eye and now both eyes at times will not open when I first wake up. I have taken eye drops for dry eyes and I really do not think it is just that the way this came on so suddenly and have been experiencing this for a few weeks now. The eye drops are not helping, either! This is not from lack of sleep as I sleep very well and even knowing how much this bothers me will not prevent me from falling asleep and yet I will not fall asleep unless I am trying to. I have only read a few others that experienced this but they had eye twitching which I do not have. What can this be?

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS]

It could be exposure keratitis due to the lids separating slightly during sleep or it could be maile recurrent corneal erosions.These two problems can co-exist. use the search feature to look up previous discussions.

Try genteal gel in both eyes at bed time, in am splash eyes with warm water then put in a good artifical tear like systane or opteve.

If still have problem try
Refresh PM ointment in both eyes at bedtime.

JCH I IMD

[CountryMe]

Thanks so much! I got the gel you recommended the first day you posted it. I was surprised that first night after using it that I could tell some difference that quickly! The eye that has been the longest not opening when I wake up is still having some problems opening but not as bad and the other eye that just started having problems is a lot better already. It's a great relief to be able to have atleast one eye to open up while the other one hopefully will be all better, too, soon. Again, I really did not expect any relief that quickly so it was a nice surprise. Thanks again and for taking time to be here to answer our questions.

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS]

You are welcome.
JCH MD