Window opened overnight, eye pain today

March 11, 2025 2:27 PM

I live in a major city in a highrise apartment. I opened my window for fresh air, and forgot to close it overnight. This morning, I woke up with eye pain — a continually nagging feeling like there's something stuck in my eye.

I put my head/eyes in a big bowl to clean them out, which helped somewhat, but the dirt/pain kept coming back. When I went to a doctor's appointment mid-day, the pain/dirt cleared right up with zero issues at the doctor's office. When I came back to my apartment, boom, pain/dirt came back. It's particularly bad when I'm in the area where the window is (living room/couches). I have an air purifier and am running it on full blast, but it's seemingly not helping. Even being in my bedroom doesn't really make a big difference, unfortunately.

Could it be dust or dirt, especially being in an urban landscape? The area has some ongoing construction. How do I clear this up? It's worrying, especially my eye continues to feel pain and bothered. Washing it out helps temporarily, but it keeps coming back.

Thanks.

posted by thoughtful_analyst to Health & Fitness (10 answers total)

It could just be allergies -- this definitely matches how I'd describe my eye allergies sometimes. I once went to the optometrist in a panic about it and they were just like "it's allergies go home". Try some OTC allergy eye drops like Zatidor or Alaway?
posted by brainmouse at 2:49 PM on March 11 [4 favorites]

This is what a corneal abrasion feels like to me.

I went through a period where I was routinely waking up with eye pain and the feeling like I had something in my eye. It turns out I sleep with my eyes slightly open, and so a dry atmosphere (in my case, sleeping with an overhead ceiling fan running) dried out my corneas and caused abrasions.

I saw my optometrist who advised me to use eye drops daily, put a warm compress on my eyes daily to warm the oils in my eyelids to lubricate my corneas, take fish oil supplements, and sleep with an eye mask on. All of these actions have helped.

Perhaps see an optometrist who can look at your corneas for signs of an abrasion.
posted by rodneyaug at 3:04 PM on March 11 [4 favorites]

This is how my eyes feel when they get dry, which they often do. I improve it by using artificial tears multiple times/day, so as not to give them a chance to dry out, and so in your shoes I'd try that for a couple of days. If it's going to help, it helps pretty quickly, but just one or two applications isn't enough. I have to be preventive about my dry eyes.

I have had a corneal abrasion. It's in the Top 5 pain events of my life, so I wouldn't go there just from that feeling that there's something in my eye that I can't get out. But if artificial tears don't work, getting it checked out is not a bad idea.
posted by Well I never at 3:30 PM on March 11 [1 favorite]

Feels like sand got in the eye?
Could be a scratched cornea. The larger the scratch the worse the pain.
You should get it looked at.
They'll put in some drops to numb the eye. Hurt's like hell when it hits the scratched area.
Then some dye. You won't feel that.
Then there's an instrument they look through to see if it's scratched and how bad.
Treatment antibiotics to prevent infection. Eye patch to help immobilize the eye.
Moving the eyeball like when reading or watching tv can irritate it

When they look at my eyes they say oh yeah you've done this before.
Too many times for me.
posted by yyz at 3:32 PM on March 11 [1 favorite]

Yeah start with artificial tears. If you see floaters or strings or flashes, especially in the same spot over and over, that’s emergency time, but to me it sounds like you have dry eyes and your stress and actions are exacerbating the issue a bit. (I could be projecting, as I have done this.) There also may have been a particle of something that scratched your eyelid, and blinking causes it to move and hurt, and maybe the lighting in different locations is causing you to blink more or less, or have your eyeball in an angle that hurts more or less? Fussy stuff. The artificial tears are unlikely to harm anything and should be soothing regardless, so they are worth acquiring. I like the ones in little individual ampules even though it’s a lot of single use plastic, because of hygiene.
posted by Mizu at 4:52 PM on March 11

Due to allergies, I have a raised bump inside my left lower eyelid. I use an allergy drop in the morning and then gel drops twice later in the day. If I neglect it, I can feel the bump there. One day I may take the offer the doctor made to manually remove it.
posted by PussKillian at 5:17 PM on March 11

I also think this sounds very much like a corneal abrasion/scratch. It could be the result of construction dust; when it happens to me it's usually after shoveling gravel or something similarly gritty.

The other way I can tell I've scratched my cornea is that my vision in the affected eye may be blurry in bright light (outdoors at noon on a sunny day, for example) but not at night or in dimmer conditions. I'd imagine this isn't always the case, depending on the location of the scratch, but it seems like it is for me.
posted by pullayup at 5:54 PM on March 11

This sounds like an allergy problem, specific to your home. I am assuming you have vacuumed and mopped and changed/cleaned the filter on your air purifier.
Dust mites or allergens on bedding could be a problem. Washing or replacing the pillows and using an eye mask may help.
Is there something just outside your window that is triggering? Are the screens and outer surfaces dusty? Cleaning the blinds/curtains would be a priority.
You may need to keep the windows shut for the time being, particularly if there is construction nearby.

Dry air can aggravate allergies, particularly when it is cold.
Here are things I did to add humidity during a week-long spell of below freezing weather. This was at the end of two months of sinus congestion and horrible drainage.
Vick's warm steam vaporizer, using just tap water. I kept it filled all the time in the kitchen, which was the closest room to the living room where I was sick.
Treva portable rechargeable humidifiers. I got them from CVS Pharmacy and they were excellent for keeping cold mist near my face. I kept one recharging at all times.
Another option is a large towel in a bucket of water, which can gradually soak up moisture and transfer it into the air. Adding a fan turns it into a swamp cooler.
A pan of water on the stove works, but it can boil dry.

Do check with your optometrist about liquid tears and problems associated with long-term use. There is a rebound issue with some eyedrops for red eye.
posted by TrishaU at 6:28 PM on March 11

This is how my allergies feel when they're bad.
posted by augustimagination at 12:37 AM on March 12

Response by poster: It seems like this was an allergy onset, because I started feeling congested and watery eyes, etc later on. It's odd because I've never had allergies, but a quick Google search revealed that you can develop allergies as an adult. I wish I could know what caused it. Perhaps pollen?

I've never had an issue at my home before. There are no screens on the windows, though, so maybe something that triggered the allergy reaction got close to the window.

I'll try eyedrops and see if they might do the trick.
posted by thoughtful_analyst at 7:35 AM on March 12