• Question: in the morning when you wake up why do you have 'sleep' in your eyes?

    Asked by to Andrew, Elaine, Emma, Michael, Nancy on 17 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Nancy Carlisle

      Nancy Carlisle answered on 17 Jun 2014:

      ‘Sleep’ is a combination of mucus and dust or dead skins cells or other gunk. When we are awake, blinking helps wash these things out of our eyes. When we sleep, it is more likely to collect because we aren’t blinking!

    • Photo: Emma Reid

      Emma Reid answered on 17 Jun 2014:

      Hi Ollie!
      Nancy is right, ‘sleep’ has a protective function to keep the surface of our eyes clean. The mucus traps waste and debris, like when you get a bit of dust or grit in your eye. It’s usually flushed away when we blink but at night it builds up to form “eye boogers!” 🙂
      Emma

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