Sudden Under Eye Puffiness

Waking up, looking in the mirror and through groggy eyes, I saw the most hideous under eye puffiness! This puffiness had developed literally overnight making my eyes look like I hadn’t slept in days. Had I consumed something so laden with sodium and other chemicals that my entire undereye area was swollen and somewhat discolored?

Using a cold wet compress helped some but it was unnerving to see how my entire face changed with swollen pads under my eyes. Immediately, I began the Facial Magic® under-eye exercises, contracting the lower eye muscles and performing the 100-circle exercise, hoping the skin wouldn’t be negatively affected.

Knowing that nothing new had been added topically to my skin, it had to be diet related. As I retraced my food and beverage intake, it wasn’t hard to distinguish that my under-eye puffiness that resembled neon lights was a result of eating something off my normal eating regime, drinking carbonated soda, and drinking less water. It had to be!

Another contributing factor might have been the headboard of my bed. Changing bedrooms, I discovered that when sleeping, I felt that my head was lower than my feet causing nasal congestion which possibly could have contributed to the under-eye malady.  To remedy the bed situation, the headboard was elevated using old phone books and now sleeping is more comfortable.

Fat pads under the eyes develop slowly. These are called Malar Bags. They are a result of accumulated fat and serum combined with lax muscles in the lower eye and upper cheek. These “festoons” become more apparent as aging sets in. Exercise can be extremely helpful to restore muscle tone but usually, if the area is left untreated, surgery is the only option. 

Thankfully, my under-eye area has been restored. This incident has certainly reminded me that more water is vitally important and was likely needed in my diet…water, not tea, not coffee, not adult beverages, and certainly not soda, but plain filtered water.