If your eyes feel gritty, tired, or strangely watery, you are not imagining it — dry eye is extremely common, and coastal living does it no favors. The good news is that dry eye is very manageable once we identify what is actually causing it.
Dry eye happens when your eyes do not make enough tears, or when the tears you make evaporate too quickly. Around here, plenty of things push you toward the second category: relentless air conditioning, ceiling fans, salty beach wind, bright sun, pool and ocean water, and the hours we all spend staring at screens without blinking nearly enough.
Screens deserve special blame. When we focus on a phone or monitor, our blink rate drops by more than half, leaving the surface of the eye to dry out. Your eyes were not designed for back-to-back video calls.
Here is the part that confuses people: dry eye often makes your eyes water. When the surface gets irritated, your eyes overreact with a flood of reflex tears that drain away just as fast. Yes, your eyes can be dry and watery at the same time — bodies are dramatic like that.
Simple steps go a long way: follow the 20-20-20 rule (every 20 minutes, look 20 feet away for 20 seconds), use preservative-free artificial tears, stay hydrated, and aim AC vents away from your face. If the irritation lingers, come in. There are several types of dry eye, and the right treatment depends on which one you have — something we can pinpoint at Siegmund Eye Care rather than guess at from a drugstore aisle.
Irritation from a dry, unstable tear film triggers a burst of reflex tears. They relieve the feeling briefly but do not fix the underlying dryness, so the cycle repeats.
For mild, occasional dryness, often yes — choose preservative-free tears. If you need drops constantly or your eyes still bother you, that is a sign to have us take a look.
Medically reviewed by Dr. Jason Siegmund, OD, a board-certified optometric physician at Siegmund Eye Care in Myrtle Beach.
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