Puffy Eyes: Causes, Symptoms, and the Best Ways to Reduce Swelling

June 11, 2025 contact lenses Uncategorized 0

At some point in your life, you’ve probably had to deal with puffy eyes. To some people, it’s a norm they experience quite often due to one factor or the other.

Puffy eyes occur when the skin around your eyes become swollen and they affect your face’s mood by making you look tired or unwell. They are mostly not a serious case, but the way they affect your appearance, mood, and feeling about yourself can be quite frustrating

In this article, we will be dealing with what they are, what causes or triggers them, the symptoms, and the best ways to get rid of them as fast as possible. Ready?

Table of Contents

Why Causes My Eyes Puffiness?

Your eyes become puffy when fluids build up in the tissues around your eyes. It can cause the swelling to occur either in your upper or lower lids. It doesn’t end there; it can come along with other symptoms like watery eyes, dry eyes, or red eyes.

There is no rule to puffiness; it can affect one eye or the two, depending on the situation. In most cases, dark circles can also appear around your eyes or heavy bags under your eyes. Since the skin is very thin, the swelling will be more noticeable.

What Makes My Eyes Puffy?

Puffy eyes can be tied to so many reasons and we will be mentioning a few of them below:

Your eyes can become puffy when you don’t get enough sleep. Lack of sleep is even one of the main causes for swollen eyes because it stresses your eyes and.
Sometimes, if you have allergy symptoms or hay fever, sneezing, itching, or watery eyes can make your eyes swell.
Salty foods or hormonal changes in females can cause fluid retention, and when your body builds up fluid, it makes your eyes look swollen.
As we age, the skin breaks, becomes thinner, and ends up sagging. This opens room for the extra fat under the eye to become more visible and make the eyes puffy.
Shedding a lot tears can lead to swelling because of the fluid formation around the eye area
A medical condition called thyroid eye disease can also be a cause of swelling around the eyes
If the eye is infected, it can cause redness and make your eyes swollen and painful.
Some medical conditions can be a constant reason for chronic puffiness, and in this case, you need a health care professional’s attention.

How Do I Know My Eyes Are Puffy?

Although there are general symptoms for puffy eyes, the gravity of it can vary from one person to another.

Dark circles around the eyes
Watery or dry eyes
Bags under the eyes
Itching or burning feeling
Swelling in the upper or lower eyelids
Redness or irritation

The degree of the symptoms can become worse according to the stress you go through, the quality of your sleep, your allergies, or underlying causes.

Puffy Eyes Risk Factors

If you fall into any of the following categories, they can contribute to your puffy eyes more often than others.

Family History of Swollen eyes
Aging
Allergies
Smoking
Use of certain drugs
Hormonal changes
Irregular or poor quality sleep
High salt intake

At Home Remedies to Reduce Puffy Eyes

Luckily, there are several home remedies that you can try if you wake up with or are experiencing puffy eyes, such as:

Soak a clean, damp washcloth in water and cool compress over your eyes for a few minutes
Soak tea bags in cool water and place them over your closed eyes because the antioxidants in the tea can reduce eye puffiness.
Place an extra pillow under your head to raise it a few inches to stop fluid buildup.
Limit salt intake for some period to delay or stop fluid retention totally
You should rest your eyes a lot by getting 7 to 9 hours of quality every night
Always sit upright when you are watching TV or relaxing; this helps with your swelling.

Medical Treatment Options

Have you tried all these but nothing is working? Fear not, you can also try these medical options after talking to your healthcare professional.

Eye treatment creams help your skin get firm by correcting bags and reducing puffiness.
Laser resurfacing can help reduce your eye bags and smooth your skin.
You can also use chemical peels to improve your skin tone and remove dark circles.
In extreme cases, you can get blepharoplasty, which is also known as eyelid surgery. With this, you can remove excess fat under your eyes and correct sagging skin through the eyelid surgery.
If the cause is linked with thyroid disease, then you have to get treatment for it.

When Doctor Should Come in

If your eye puffiness is sudden and severe, affects only one eye, causes pain or vision problems, and doesn’t go away after a few days, you should visit your doctor because it can be a sign of infection, allergy, or other medical condition.

Puffy Eyes Prevention

You don’t have to do much. Get enough sleep daily, drink a lot of water, reduce your salt intake, use cosmetics or makeup that doesn’t irritate your skin, use sunscreen for protection, cleanse your face before bed, and avoid constant rubbing of your eyes.

Final Summary

Yes, puffy eyes can ruin your mood but they are not serious enough to shatter your confidence. Follow the home remedies; if they don’t go away after a few days, talk to your doctor. You just need the proper attention to gain your healthy and fresh look back.

Take care of your eyes and the skin around them and say a permanent goodbye to puffiness while looking your best.