What Causes Dark Circles Under Your Eyes When You Are Tired?

Let’s face it. It’s just annoying when somebody else notices your dark circles and says, “you look tired” or asks, “you look ill, is everything okay?” While it may seem like a curse that only you bear, dark circles are actually very common in both men and women. It affects people of different ages and lifestyle dispositions. Regardless, it seems to have become one of the most complained about conditions today. Luckily, there are many ways to effectively treat and prevent them.

So, what really causes dark circles to appear under your eyes when you are exhausted? You develop black circles especially when you are tired because the skin underneath your eyes is less sensitive to elasticity. Tiredness leads to loose skin and the shadow cast by the loosened skin tissue under your eyes causes a dark ring to appear.

It may seem like a troublesome problem but don’t worry, it’s a manageable condition that can be made better with just the right habitual and lifestyle tweaks. Read on more to find out how.

What are Dark Circles and How To Prevent Them

Tiredness can cause your skin to appear dull and blanched. This, in turn, causes the relatively dark tissue and blood vessels under your eyes to show more prominently, and in some cases, it can also be caused by fluid buildup under your eyes which results in puffiness, thus causing dark circles.

When you push your body without adequately taking care of it, it starts to show signs of damage. These signs should be taken as indicators for your health. In the same way, dark circles are also an indication. Your body is trying to tell you that you are either tired, fatigued or stressed out.

Multiple Reasons, Same Dark Circles

In order to effectively treat dark circles, you must first understand the cause for them. While the reasons may vary, they all come down to a few basic factors. This way you can also at least eliminate the possibility of having a serious underlying medical condition. Let’s go over a few common factors:

Fatigue

If you feel that your bags only appear when you are tired, then we would bet our money on fatigue being the number one reason for your dark circles. Working long hours behind a desk and not getting enough exercise can be a direct cause. Exercising promotes healthy blood flow that helps in maintaining multiple bodily functions.

The increase in blood flow also aids in removing toxins and various buildups in your system, resulting in clearer and livelier skin, which in turn significantly lessens your dark circles. Your skin is the largest organ in your body and the way you treat it affects the way it appears.

Try getting exercise in the form of walking or stretches. Also, try to maintain a healthy and balanced schedule where you are getting around 7 to 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep. We recommend the Nidra Deep Rest Eye Mask (link to Amazon). This is guaranteed to make a difference under your eyes!

Stress

Stress also plays a huge role in affecting your dark circles. The buildup of emotional and physical tension in your body can wreak havoc to the internal system and your mind, especially when it turns into long term anxiety. Stress and anxiety can be incredibly draining as it causes an imbalance in your body’s energy and hormonal levels. Maintaining these levels is highly important as it dictates your body’s health.

Although, science has yet to figure out the particulars of how stress affects the body, it is said that anxiety directly correlates to tiredness and lethargy, both of which are the leading causes for dark circles. The good news is that with the right willpower, you can easily manage stress.

There is no better way to deal with bodily tensions than with yoga. Meditation and yoga can significantly improve your mood and overall health. Trust us, the hours you put into yoga can easily be redeemed by helping you to prevent dark circles from appearing later in life. This UIYTR Gym Bag with Yoga Mat (Amazon) is a great way to start your yoga journey.

Dehydration

Your body is heavily dependent on hydration to function properly and appear healthy. Dehydration causes a slew of problems that can affect your overall health. It also causes your skin to appear deflated, which in turn highlights your dark circles more than anything. Dehydration also causes the body to become sluggish.

You will realize that you would feel more easily tired when you are dehydrated than when you are adequately hydrated. This is because dehydration causes fatigue. If your day job requires a lot of physical work, it’s very important that you stay hydrated or you might end up feeling fatigued more often and over longer periods of time.

A simple way to make sure you stay hydrated is always to keep a tumbler with you so that you can prevent dehydration even when you are on the go! If you are looking for a good vacuum insulated bottle, then this Yeti Tumbler (click to view pricing on Amazon) is a step in the right direction.

Genetics

While there is nothing that you can do about what you inherit from your bloodline, you can take the steps we have discussed in this article to lessen and even prevent dark circles from appearing. Genetics currently goes beyond human control since your genes can’t be altered (yet) but that doesn’t mean that you should stop your pursuit in getting rid of your eye bags.

Your Habits Might be to Blame

We get it, you are used to burning the midnight oil and excessively sleeping throughout the day. While this may benefit your productivity in the short term, it is likely to cause irreversible damage over the long run. Yes, there is indeed a thing as getting more rest than necessary.

Remember, too much of anything can make you sick. This goes for resting as well. If you are the type that stays in bed for hours even after you’ve woken up, then you need to change your lifestyle to see any improvement under your eyes. Resting too much paradoxically causes your body’s metabolic rate to slow down since you don’t need that much energy to function. This leads to lethargy, weight gain, tiredness and, you guessed it, dark circles.

Also, waking up late and gluing yourself to your phone for hours might be the single most devastating thing that you are doing to your body. Try to make it a habit to get out of bed as soon as you wake up. This way you can start your day early and feel fresh throughout the afternoon.

If you are fond of those salty snacks, then we have bad news for you. While you can have snacks in moderation, the real trouble begins when you start to have them regularly or excessively. Salt causes your body to retain more water than it needs, hence you end up looking bloated. This also leads to puffy eyes which cast a shadow under your eyelids that cause dark circles to appear.

Always remember to take care of yourself. Your body is a temple and it should be treated as such. Try to take it easy and focus on your mental health as well, as it directly affects how your body functions and appears. Getting those precious hours of sleep is extremely important.

Rest is the best remedy when it comes to dark circles, but you have to maintain a balance between rest and exercise because they both work hand in hand. Make sure you get adequate exercise throughout the day as it will help you in maintaining your youthful appearance and will also keep the bags away!