In most cases, fluid retention in the tissue around the eyes is responsible. The medical term for the skin around the eyes looking swollen or puffy is “periorbital puffiness.” The cause is commonly edema, swelling caused by the retention of fluid, which can occur due to crying or during sleep.
Crying is a normal behavior caused by a variety of reasons that include emotional, physical and chemical responses from your body. But it's possible you can cry too much or not cry enough. Either can cause damage to your eyes if left untreated.
“The salt in tears leads to water retention and swelling around our eyes. More blood is also flowing to the whole facial region, causing a strained, red, puffy face.”
Bad Effects of Crying on Health
But for some, the act of crying can cause medical complications. It can lead to fits or can cause acute shortness of breath. For those with severe heart conditions, there can be a cardiac pain. Crying can take a toll on your body if you have certain medical conditions.
How Much Crying Is Too Much? No guidelines exist that determine how much people should or should not cry. Studies indicate that women tend to shed more emotional tears than men. One study found that women cried an average of 5.3 times per month while men cried 1.4 times during the same period.
By the process of osmosis, water from your tears flows through a semipermeable membrane into the tissue around your eyes to balance out the concentration of salt on either side. This causes your eyes to appear puffy, which is only aggravated when you rub them while you're crying.
What causes eyestrain? There are a number of factors that can cause eyes to feel strained, such as lack of sleep, crying, exposure to very bright light or prolonged periods of intense focus while driving, reading or working at the computer.
In addition, emotional crying, as a way to vent and release emotional trauma, also relieves our body of countless toxins and hormones like cortisol and prolactin, which contribute to elevated stress levels. Ridding our bodies of these chemicals by “having a good cry” can, in turn, help us sleep better.
“Crying releases a ton of hormones, including chemical endorphins (painkillers) and oxytocin, also known as the 'love hormone'. These induce a sense of calm and promote sleepiness,” explains Rhodes.
Crying releases stress-relieving hormones, such as oxytocin and endorphins, which calm you down and make you sleepy. The act of crying is your body's way of soothing itself after an overwhelming experience and can leave you feeling tired as you calm down.
When a person cries with emotion, they can produce more tears than the lacrimal drainage system can cope with. This causes the tears to run out of the eyes and sometimes the nose. Tissue around the eyes can then reabsorb the tears, making the area appear puffy.
So then, why do our eyes get all puffy from crying? Well, because emotional tears are more watery, they're less salty than basic tear secretions and the tissue in your eye. So, through the process of osmosis, the water moves into the saltier ocular tissues, which makes them swell up.
Pinkness or redness lasts about 3 days. The eye may be puffy for up to 7 days.
Ulrich said by covering part of their face they can feel hidden from the shocking event. Additionally these reactions serve a second purpose by allowing a person to soothe themselves through touch also called a "pacifier" gesture.
When you are happy, angry, or sad, your body releases a hormone that makes your pupil size change. When you're happy or angry, your eyes usually become more vibrant, while when you cry, your eyes obtain a reddish color, making your eyes appear brighter.
“It's very normal for there to be some daily fussiness. Crying up to three hours a day is still within a normal range.”
/ˈkrɑɪbeɪbi/ Other forms: crybabies. A crybaby is someone who cries very easily and complains a lot. If you have a younger sister, you've probably called her a crybaby from time to time.
It's best not to hold in emotions all the time, but sometimes it's important to hold back tears. If you need to control a cry, try to hold back your tears just until you're in a better place for them. This way you won't suppress your emotions altogether.
Crying apparently burns as much as laughing does, at about a rate of 1.3 calories a minute.
Emotional exhaustion is a type of burnout that occurs when accumulated stress leaves you feeling completely drained. People who are emotionally exhausted often feel hopeless, powerless, and with little to no energy to do anything.
Crying is normal in healthy amounts—but what is a healthy amount? With no hard numbers as to how often we should cry, the American Psychological Association states that, on average, women cry emotional tears several times a month (30 to 64 times a year), while men may cry once every month or two (5 to 17 times a year).