It can be very irritating…
Some of you may know this inconvenience far better than others, but the curse of irritating and distracting eye twitch is very real.
Speaking to Health, Donny Suh, MD, associate professor at the Truhlsen Eye Institute of the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha said: “Basically it’s an overstimulation of the eye muscles.”
The overstimulation leads to an involuntary contraction of the eye muscles with leads to a twitch in your eye/eyelid.
These twitches are usually painless and harmless, and they eventually clear away on their own after a period of time.
Two of the most common causes of this twitch are lack of sleep and stress, but other contributors to the twitch are too much alcohol, caffeine, and nicotine.
“Twitches are typically benign and should only last for a few weeks,” says Dr. Suh, adding that a lingering eye twitch could actually lead to more anxiety, which prevents it from going away. “The problem is that once you develop these twitches, they tend to cause a vicious cycle.”
You should see a doctor if the eye twitch lingers for a long time or it’s beginning to affect your vision.
But as we said earlier, the main causes of an eye twitch are easy to remedy with some simple lifestyle changes.
Making sure you get enough sleep, along with some simple relaxation exercises can be very helpful, as can cutting back on the amount of caffeine and alcohol you consume.
But one thing you definitely should do is limit the amount amount of time you spend staring at a screen. Dr Suh recommends taking a break from looking at your screen every ten minutes by closing your eyes and then focusing on an object in the distance for a few seconds.
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