Puffy eyes and swollen eyelids after crying are common because when you cry for more than a few minutes, your body loses fluids from crying and lack of fluids can lead to swelling and puffiness in the eyes.
This type of swelling is harmless and goes away on its own. If the swelling does not fix and you face other symptoms such as pain, discharge, or visual disturbance then you should seek medical attention immediately.
Today I’m going to run through five ways in which you can get rid of the puffy and swollen eyes after crying. Before I get into the five ways I’m going to quickly talk about the two main reasons that eyes get puffed up when you cry.
What are the reasons for swollen eyelids after crying?
Cells get filled with Water from tears
When the tear duct starts pumping out tears, the tears have a lot of water. Some of the water comes out and some starts moving into the neighboring cells in the eye region. So once they move into the cells in the eye region it swells up the cells and that swelling is what causes the puffiness in the eye region.
Blood Vessels Swell Up
Whenever you cry that eye area requires more blood supply. So how do you get more blood supply, the blood vessels start to dilate. So that more blood can flow through them and reach the eye region. When they have dilated it is nothing but a kind of inflammation or swelling of the blood vessels. this dilation of the blood vessels can lead to puffiness.
How to get rid of Swollen Eyelids After Crying?
To get rid of the puffiness you have to follow the instructions given below:
Drain the water from cells
You have got to drain that water out of the cells that water has to come out of the cells.
Reduce the swelling in blood vessels
The second thing you have to do is reduce the dilation, and bring the blood vessels back to the state that they were originally in. So that will reduce the inflammation. Let’s discuss the five ways you can do these two things.
Massage
Massage will help you drain that water out so gently massage and don’t drag the skin. Gently massage the tiny dots around the eye region and concentrate more on the bridge of the nose, where you put spectacles.
That is the region that touches the nose so concentrate more on that and gently stretch the skin but don’t drag too much. Don’t be too harsh. Be as gentle as you can. When you are massaging this region spreading the water out draining that water, pushing the water out of the cells, and letting it flow into the other parts of the body.
Caffeine
The second way is to reduce the dilation of the blood vessels. You can do that by using caffeine. Don’t use caffeine as drinking because it has the opposite effect. Use a skin care product in which caffeine is included as an ingredient.
Caffeine is a vasoconstrictor that reduces the dilation in blood vessels. It brings them back to its original state. It constricts the blood vessels. So caffeine skin care products have caffeine in it and are something very effective in the under-eye region to bring blood vessels back to their original state to reduce the dilation.
Once the dilation of the blood vessels is gone, the blood vessels are not inflamed as much the blood supply comes back to normal. That means the puffiness due to the inflammation will go.
Cold Compress
Applying something cold also constricts the blood vessels. So the inflammation that you get in the blood vessels will go. You can use anything cold even a spoon, and leave it in the refrigerator and put it in the under-eye region. If you haven’t got a spoon readily, use an ice cube which is very effective to reduce inflammation.
Tea Bags
Tea bags help us in multiple ways when it comes to reducing puffiness in the under-eye region. Tea bags have got caffeine in them and we just ran through how caffeine is a vasoconstrictor and it reduces the dilation of blood vessels.
Tea bags also have tennis in them. Tennis also constrict the blood vessels so they make the dilation go away. Tea bags that have chamomile in them. They can be very helpful because chamomile has anti-inflammatory ingredients which can bring the swelling down.
Now how would you use the tea bags? First, take some warm water, and dip the tea bags in there. So that activates all these ingredients and then keeps the tea bags in the refrigerator. Leaving the tea bag in the refrigerator, you are effectively converting it into a cold compress. Then grab the tea bags and put them in your eyes.
Gravity
If you don’t do any of these things then just go on with your daily activities. The swelling and puffiness will eventually come down because kind of gravity drains the water down and reduces all the puffiness. But it takes time.
Now what about if you quickly give that gravity a push? how can you do that? Take a couple of pillows, and put your head on top of the pillows. So your head is in an elevated state. this way your head is slanting down which forces gravity to come into action quickly. so the water drains from here into the rest of the body which will help to reduce swelling and puffiness of the eyes.
