As an Optometrist, this is one of the most common questions my patients ask. The misunderstanding is that normal tears are not water-based, they’re more oily like mayonnaise!
Your eyes aren’t dry, they’re chapped for 2 reasons:
1. The oil glands (meibomian) are located behind your eyelashes, and they will always produce less oil as we age (I find symptoms usually start around 20!). Extreme example of their clogging is a stye.
2. Your eyes response to any irritation is to add water. Sounds like a good thing, but water is not your friend. Licking your lips too much makes them chapped. Water makes your skin chapped. Too much water in your tears makes your eye chapped. Problem is your eye keeps adding more water because that’s its defense mechanism.
How do you fix it. Unclog your glands and add oil (dry eye drops). My patients say they hate drops so I developed Eye Drop Hero to hold the bottle and let you decide where the drop goes.