Anyone here with severe dry eyes?

[hedgehog]

I have Sjogren's syndrome, and use drops anywhere from once to several times a day. I've been using drops just before bed, and waking up needing to add more drops in the middle of the night. So far, I've stayed away from drops with mineral oil and/or petroleum jelly, but does anything else get you through the night?

[Warpy]

1. Celluvisc is a very viscous preparation that tends to stay put

a lot longer than the liquid tears. Tears Naturale also makes an ointment you squeeze into your lower lid just before the lights go off and that has the best chance of lasting all night.

This is what you need to do if your dry eyes are waking you up. If the ointment doesn't work, then it's time to see your eye doc and talk about tear duct plugs (punctal plugs). Those prevent tears and other preparations from draining into the nasal cavity and can buy your vision a lot of time.

There are also tear stimulants out there, but I don't know anyone who uses them. You have to have a lot of functioning lachrymal tissue (tear generating tissue) for them to work.

My own Sjogren's tends to wax and wane. Sometimes I need to use liquid tears all day and ointment at night, other times I don't need anything.

[hedgehog]

2. I'm with you on the waxing and waning - I go for an eye check up in a month or so -

I'm pretty sure the eye doctor will have me use the mineral oil gels before moving on to punctal plugs. I'm going to try to be a bit more aggressive about using the drops during the day. I'm too used to ignoring minor irritations!

Here's a strange question for you -

I woke up the other night with dry eyes and when I opened my eyes in the dark - I saw concentric rings of bright yellow light. The rings were broken, not continuous. I blinked a few times, and each time I blinked, the rings faded and grew smaller until they vanished. I'm sure this was some artifact of the eye surface being dry, but I never heard of this before. Have you heard of or experienced this?

[Warpy]

3. No, my own eye problems are many in addition to the Sjogren's

This is something you'll have to run by your doctor.

Waking up with dry eyes is not good. My best advice is that you go out today and get either Celluvisc or Tears Naturale ointment and start using them at night. They're not prescription.

Corneal ulcers are no damn fun and that's what dry eyes at night can contribute to.

[hedgehog]

4. I've been using a night drop, but I may have to move to a gel containing petroleum jelly.

I'll try adding more drops in the early evening so I'm not trying to add overnight lube to a dry cornea.