I like to think the boogers that wield your eyes shut in the morning is your body’s
way of saying you don’t need to open them for 5 more minutes.
Hi everyone, it’s Julian here for you at DNews.
Ok, so they aren’t actually boogers, but you know that crusty stuff in the corner of
your eye when you wake up?
Some people call it sleep, or rheum, or gound.
And believe it or not, it serves a purpose.
Dry and crusty, gunky or goopy, eye discharge in small amounts is a normal part of waking
up.
This combination of mucus, oil, skin cells and other debris in your eye serves as a protective
shield and allows the eye to function properly.
So let’s get technical for a second: the eyes of mammals are covered by a multi-layer
film that helps them do what they’re supposed to do.
Closest to the cornea — the transparent front part of the eye — is a layer of mucin.
Mucin is made up of protein that scientists think helps clear debris and pathogens from
the eye.
On top of that is the aqueous layer, which makes up 90% of your eye’s coating.
This is a water-based tear solution only about as thick as a single strand of spider silk,
which serves many functions, including keeping our eyes hydrated and protects against infection.
The last outer layer is called the lipid layer.
It is made of an oily substance called meibum, a key part of which are fatty acids.
When you’re awake, your body temperature keeps that layer oily, but at night when you
sleep, the body cools, and some of the meibum becomes a dry solid – forming the basis
of the eye gunk that you’re used to.
Continuous blinking throughout the day allows a film of tears to wash away the rheum from
our eyes, but when we’re asleep, we aren’t blinking.
[unless you’re a chronic sleepwalker].
According to research publish by the British Journal of Ophthalmology, sleep relaxes the
muscles in our eyes, causing the excess meibum to seep out onto our eyelids and lashes.
Think of it like a zipper – from the edge of your face in toward the nose.
As the eyelid closes, it pushes the material collected under the lid into the corner and
dries out overnight.
But why do we produce meibum at all?
Well first, the oily juices prevent us from crying constantly, unless we get our feelings
hurt, holding tears in place.
It also keeps our eyes hydrated.
A study published in the journal Experimental Eye Research found that rabbits’ eyes, when
lacking meibum, lost water through evaporation much faster than the normal rate.
Call it annoying or disgusting, but the stuff that glues your peepers together in the morning
is perfectly normal and important.
And you can be proud to say ‘I woke up like this’.
We're just gonna keep rolling.
I'm just going to keep going.
So now you know about eye boogers, but what about nose boogers.
What happens if you...eat them.
Yeah, gross, right?
I covered that in this video.
What do you think?
Do eye boogers gross you out?
Let us know in the comments, subscribe for more, and I'll see you guys next time on DNews.