Many things contribute to dry eyes and related symptoms, but protection from the wind could be the key to reducing your dry eye symptoms.

Wind from fans, air ducts and automobile air vents all dry your eyes. If you experience these situations only briefly or occasionally, your eyes can usually keep up, using their blink mechanism to rewet themselves before they becoming severely dry.

When you concentrate on a computer monitor or small task, however, you may forget to blink, and that means your eyelids can’t do their rewetting job. The longer you sit in wind from any source, the worse the problem becomes.

Of course, dry eyes can have other causes, including medication side effects, hereditary propensities and underlying medical conditions. That’s why it’s important to have an eye doctor check your eyes if you have a problem with dry eyes.

Computer glasses, low power reading glasses and over-the-counter drops can all provide the protection you need, however -- and each provides additional benefits that could help you in other ways.

Computer Glasses

Computer glasses come in many sizes and shapes, from geeky and sleek to plain and unadorned. And while the term “computer glasses” has no real definition, they are generally nonprescription eyeglasses intended to reduce the symptoms of computer vision syndrome -- including dry eyes, itchiness, scratchiness, eye strain and even eye pain.

Because this type of specs put a physical barrier between you and the wind, computer glasses can be very effective at combating dry eyes caused by wind.

Low Power Reading Glasses

Even better for some people than computer glasses are low power reading glasses. These glasses have magnifications of +0.25, +0.50, +0.75 diopters or perhaps slightly greater. They work like the computer specs mentioned above to create a physical barrier against the wind, but this added magnification can help relieve the dryness as well.

Dryness related to computer vision syndrome often comes with other symptoms like eye strain and eye pain, and low power reading glasses can help relieve these symptoms, making you feel better.

Lubricating Drops

Lubricating drops like the Blink Tears Eye Drops that many optometrists recommend create a physical barrier in another way. These drops stay in your eye and help your natural tears remoisten your eyes with every blink.

These are sometimes limited in their usefulness because forgetting to blink often enough is one of the reasons people experience dry eye symptoms, but they do wonders for some people.

Take Every Step Possible

When tackling your dry eyes problem, it’s important to take every step possible to get the situation in check. That can mean seeing an eye doctor, wearing glasses even if you see fine and using drops, among other things.

You deserve the relief you’ll get when you take some time getting your dry eyes under control.