Every night while you sleep, a microscopic cleaning crew moves through your eyes and flushes out the biochemical debris — a recovery process your retinas depend on after long days of processing faces, screens, and an endless stream of digital content. Wake up rested and you’ll never notice the cleaning crew was there. Wake up without enough sleep, and your eyes will spend the day telling you something went wrong in ways most people never connect to the previous night’s sleep — dry eyes and blurry vision. Scientists have known for more than a decade that the brain runs its overnight waste-clearance operation called the glymphatic system. Sleep helps our neural tissues clean up built-up inflammation and fluid that’s associated with diseases such as glaucoma, macular degeneration, and retinal disorders. So, you can thank your overnight cleaning crew for caring for your eyes.
