Eyes are the most important sensory organs of our body and they are also the most sensitive. Due to the modern lifestyle factors we find a lot of people suffering from eye ailments. A growing number of people wear glasses and among the adult population waking up with red puffy eyes and dark circles around the eyes is not uncommon. These are what one could call a “lifestyle ailments” and can be easily overcome.

The most common cause for these symptoms as well as tiredness of the eyes is poor circulation of blood coupled with wrong eating habits, lack of sleep and the stress and strain of work. To refresh your eyes and remove tiredness, one can carry out a “palming technique” which consists of the following steps:

• Wash the eyes thoroughly with fresh cold water till they feel refreshed.
• Lie down on sit down in a comfortable position in a semi dark room
• Cup both the palms over the eyes, and keeping the eyes opened look into the darkness of the cup palms
• Blink the eyes a few times and while still looking into the closed palms rotate the eyes in a clockwise and anticlockwise motion slowly about 10 times each
• Close the eyes and flatten the palms over the eyes, then gently massage with the palms over the eyes a few times.
• Slowly remove the palms and open the eyes. Then blink a few times and feel the freshness in the eyes

Another method to refresh your eyes is to lie down after washing the face with cold water, in a comfortable position with face up for about 20 minutes with eyes closed and covered with any one of the following:

• Cold cucumber slice one on each eye
• Cold compress made of crushed ice
• Paste of raw cold potato
• Use of eyebright (a herb) to make a tea of it and soak cotton balls or soft gauze in the tea and apply to eyes as a compress while lying down.

After this, rub hands together to warm them up and cup hands over both eyes and then move hands higher and gently apply light pressure to each eye with heel of palm. Hold the motion for a moment, then release. Follow it up with a gentle massage in clockwise and anticlockwise direction before opening the eyes.

One can also use the commercially available eye masks and massager which refresh your eyes and give relaxation to the tired eyes.

Despite using all these methods, one should also remember that there is nothing like proper care and hygiene for keeping the eyes in proper condition. Simple methods like washing both the eyes at regular intervals, taking time off to the blinking exercises and proper, timely and adequate sleep do however refresh your eyes go a long way in preventing any such problems.