Hearing the four words “You look tired today” is something that everyone dreads.
When you come into your kitchen or office in the morning, you can hear remarks about how puffy or droopy your undereyes are—usually without prompting.
When the skin beneath the eyes becomes droopy, puffy, or bloated, it results in eye bags. Although the phrase and “dark circles” are sometimes used interchangeably, they are not the same.
Dermatologist Dr. Lindsey Zubritsky tells USA TODAY that dark circles are more likely to be caused by problems with pigmentation and circulation, whereas eye bags are more likely to be caused by inflated skin or the muscles surrounding the eyes.
Should you awaken with the former, what would you do? This is how doctors advise treating eye bags.
What causes bags under the eyes?
In summary, eye bags have a variety of causes.
“The most common reason is aging, as the skin as well as muscles and supporting structures under the eyes starts to get lax with time,” Zubritsky writes.
According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, other factors that can cause puffy eyes include genetics, allergies, certain medical conditions, such as thyroid issues, and diets high in salt.
Do sleep aids make eye bags disappear?
According to Zubritsky, occasionally. Sleep is another factor that contributes to eye bags, and if it was the source of yours, it might hold the key to their reversal.
“For some, increasing the amount of time that you sleep every night can help with eye bags,” she explains.
But Zubritsky emphasizes that catching a few more Z’s won’t make your eye bags magically disappear if obtaining adequate sleep isn’t the underlying cause of their appearance in the first place.
How to get rid of eye bags
Finding the underlying cause of eye bags is the greatest method to enhance their look, according to Zubritsky.
If allergies are the culprit, eye bags can be resolved, according to her, by taking antihistamines and seeing an allergist to identify triggers.
Additional home cures include administering coffee straight to the skin, using cold compresses, and using hemorrhoid creams. That last one may seem unusual, but according to Johns Hopkins, caffeine is a vasoconstrictor—it narrows blood vessels and can lessen skin puffiness. Try using a caffeine-containing eye lotion or placing cold black tea bags with caffeine on top of closed eyes.
However, Zubritsky cautions, “if you have eye bags due to genetics or aging, this may be more difficult to fix with just lifestyle changes.”
