Why Do We Get Dark Under Eye Circles?

When you wake up in the morning, what do you do? Brushing your teeth and taking a shower might be two of the first things on your list. While you might not even realize, sometime during your routine, you’ve probably taken inventory of your face to make sure that everything is still the same. In the midst of checking to see that you haven’t sprouted a new nose in a few hours, your eyes might’ve run over the dark circles that have taken residence under your eyes. They don’t pay rent! Instead of just letting them be, let’s talk about why we get dark under-eye circles!

If something goes wrong with our appearance, many people might assume that they’re sick. While acne is a sign that one might need to cleanse their skin better, dark circles might make someone think they are ill. That’s certainly not the case! Illnesses aren’t a direct precursor to dark circles under your eyes but there’s a number of different reasons why you might experience dark circles. Often times it’s easier to think things are out of our hands, but there’s a number of reasons that we can control and a few that we can’t.

Let’s first start with the reasons that CAN be helped. It might make you feel better to think that dark circles are out of your hands especially if you feel that you don’t have the time to reverse the damage. We can tell you now that your daily routine is probably a huge reason as to why you might have dark circles.

Did you get enough sleep last night? If you didn’t, that’s one aspect that attributes to your dark circles. Do you have allergies? For those who do, rubbing and scratching your eyes might feel like a temporary relief, but this is putting a lot of wear and tear on the skin beneath your eyes which leads to dark circles. When comparing summer versus winter and a sunny day versus a cloudy one, you might think that the sun is less powerful and that SPF might be more necessary for one season over the other. This isn’t true! Your skin needs constant protection from the sun and this lack of protection will lead to dark circles underneath your eyes. Excessive sun exposure is another prominent reason why some develop dark circles underneath their eyes.

While we said that there are a few reasons that are out of your control, there’s really only one. As we listed above, the majority of the causes of dark circles can be prevented. Make a conscious effort to sleep more. Take allergy medication so you’re not dealing with itchy eyes. Use SPF and limit your time in the sun. Among all these reasons, you’ll find that you have no control over a huge factor – genetics.

Your genetics aren’t something you can’t fix. You can’t go back in time and change who your family is. When it comes to dark circles under the eyes, if dark circles run in your family, you’ll just have to roll the dice and hope the gene skips you.

Dark circles under the eyes are pretty common so don’t be too self-conscious about them! Get some sleep, stay out of the sun, and be sure to take your allergy medication! If that doesn’t work, you can thank your parents for those dark circles!