Left eyelid does not open when i wake during the night

[Bevchristof]

For the last 5 months, when I wake during the night my left eyelid does not open.  I have to open it using my fingers.  There is no discharge and my eyes are not crusty.  This only happens at night.  I do not sleep with a fan on.  I have tried using gel drops but this does not help.  Can you offer any help with what could be causing this?  I do have mixed connective tissue disease.  Thank you

[JohnHaganMD]

mixed connective disease have high associations with dry eye and dry mouth. By far the most common cause would be the eye drying, sticking to the lid and not wanting to open.  Start by getting a 'hygrometer' which measure moisture in the air and putting one in the bedroom keep the humidity around 40% during the dry months if necessary use a room humidifier. Make sure no air vents create currents across the bed.  Do not sleep with your face in a pillow or on you face if you can help it.  If gels don't help try regular artificial tears, different brands,   if not help try a lubricating ointment like Refressh PM or Lacrilube or Duolube.   There are some diseases such as myastenia gravis that can cause inability to open eyelid but this is not at all a typical description.

[Bevchristof]

Thank you for your reply.  I have tried many different ey drops and gels  which have not helped but i have not tried ointment so I will look into this. Whilst it does not feel like the lid is sticking to my eye I do suffer from dry mouth etc so will get a hygrometer and test our bedroom.  To me it feels muscular, almost like the muscles in that eyelid are sluggish or slow “waking up”.  When I manually open my eye using my fingers the lid wants to shut immediately I let go of the lid.  This passes after a few minutes. Thank you for taking the time to reply to me.

[JohnHaganMD]

Yes best of luck.  Do you consistently sleep with face in pillow on the side that droops or won't open?

[Bevchristof]

I generally sleep on my back but when I do sleep on my side then yes it is the left side. I sleep on.

[JohnHaganMD]

Just so you know burying a face in a pillow overnight has been associated with that problem and also with raising pressure in the eye. studies on glaucoma patients with bilateral disease show that sleep consistently on one side have shown that the glaucoma is usually worse on the side the person sleeps on.  

[Bevchristof]

Thank you very much for that information, I didn’t know about that.  

[JohnHaganMD]

Droopy eyelid is called ptosis if you do literature search