Twitching Eye Remedy?

April 8, 2016 7:06 PM

A few weeks ago I received some news that really stressed me out. One of my eyes startched twitching that day or the next day, I'm sure related to the stress. I haven't had an eye twitch in years. I've since calmed down, but my eye hasn't stopped twitching. What can I do?
posted by atinna to Health & Fitness (15 answers total)

I experience stress-related eye twitches every 2-3 years for about 2-3 weeks at a time. I don't know how to expedite the process to stop the twitching, but I have a very different outlook on it -- when my eye starts to twitch, I try to really "sit" with the twitch and feel it, and (sometimes) perversely enjoy the feeling of letting go of control and just feeling my body react to the chemicals in it (residual stress chemicals). Rather than fight it, I just go with it. Obviously this works best when I'm not immediately occupied with other tasks, but my twitches do self-resolve after a few weeks, so I assume this helps.
posted by samthemander at 7:21 PM on April 8, 2016

I've gotten eye twitches in times of stress also and they seem to go away for me after I drink a lot of water and cut back on the coffee.
posted by mbidi at 7:27 PM on April 8, 2016

- Lack of sleep;
- being physically exhausted;
- caffeine;
will all make it worse.

Magnesium tablets will help, but not get rid of it completely.
posted by Year of meteors at 7:27 PM on April 8, 2016

Oh this happened to me recently. My sympathy. It isn't fun. I had some luck making my eye less twitchy by cutting out caffeine for awhile, and prioritizing sleep more. It didn't entirely go away until it seemed like it decided to though (it's not like my life got less stressful or anything). Took a few months for me.
posted by sockermom at 7:29 PM on April 8, 2016

Nthing to cut back on caffeine, if you consume it. They always make mine worse (and I never seem to get them when I'm not drinking coffee).
posted by lazuli at 7:30 PM on April 8, 2016

I had 5 stitches in my eyebrow at age 12 and from that day forward I had a persistent, irritating, but not constant twitch in that eyebrow/eyelid. Drove me bananas. I asked every doctor I ever saw whether it could be corrected. Most of them blamed stress even though I would be most irritated by it when I was bored. Anyway, when I was 30, I was prescribed Inderal (propranalol) for heart palpitations. Within a few days, the eye twitch stopped. That was 1990. It has not returned.

If your twitch doesn't resolve itself using the usual methods, remember my story. Eighteen years. There were times when I wanted to rip my eye out of my head.
posted by janey47 at 7:36 PM on April 8, 2016

Sleep more. Drink less caffeine. Sometimes physically massaging or holding still the muscle that's twitching can help.
posted by limeonaire at 7:52 PM on April 8, 2016

Magnesium and potassium will normally stop these for me.
posted by Lyn Never at 8:08 PM on April 8, 2016

cold compress is the only thing that's ever worked for me. Like the soft kind that you put in the freezer. Not so cold as to hurt your eye obviously, but as cold as you can stand without discomfort.
posted by fingersandtoes at 8:43 PM on April 8, 2016

I had one that went on for months, and after I exhausted everything else I'd heard of, I found some research that suggested antihistamine eye drops worked (though they couldn't figure out the exact mechanism). Zaditor is a common brand in the US; it's not super cheap but worth it if it works.
posted by wintersweet at 8:46 PM on April 8, 2016

Tonic water, the kind with quinine.

http://www.optometrystudents.com/pearl/eyelid-twitchingmyokymia-and-tonic-water/
posted by Ruki at 10:09 PM on April 8, 2016

Adding a link may have been an egregious use of the edit button. I had a doctor tell me that once, and I then went to look for supporting data. Apologies, mods.
posted by Ruki at 10:12 PM on April 8, 2016

I take magnesium citrate for this. But I bet tonic water will work too. They're both good for any kind of muscle spasm.
posted by HotToddy at 10:50 PM on April 8, 2016

magnesium, potassium (bananas), tonic water.

I actually cured mine as a preteen by converting the muscles from involuntary to directed, so now I can twitch either eyelid voluntarily. I have no language to describe the process, I just decided that fucking twitch was done for and spent a couple days trying really hard to exert willed control over it. Then I did. Never had an involuntary eyelid twitch since.
posted by mwhybark at 12:37 AM on April 9, 2016

Magnesium and potassium. Eat bananas every day for a while. Try to improve the quality and amount of sleep you get. Doxylamine or valerian root are gentle, non-habit-forming sedatives. Lots of water. Best wishes, I get this too.
posted by trunk muffins at 6:58 AM on April 9, 2016