[LifeStyle] Excess screen time giving you dark circles? Here’s how to get rid of them

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The under-eye area or around the eyes, also known as the periorbital area, is more prone to dark circles for a lot of women as well as men especially during the quarantine period, when screen time has increased due to work from home or binge-watching television series.

Dark pigmentation under the eyes gives an exhausted look, making one seem under the weather or suffering from lack of sleep. Since the skin around the eyes is the thinnest, this results in reflection of the dark maroon underlying orbicularis oculi, which is a circular muscle.

“When the light does not get reflected, it gives a dark look to the area. With increased screen time and stress in these tough cover days, the artificial light from the screen causes a lot of drying as it steals the moisture from the skin and also causes breakdown of collagen,” explains Dr Geeta Grewal, cosmetic surgeon, and anti-aging, beauty and wellness expert. The strain on the eyes makes the fat pockets melt faster. It also impedes the blood microcirculation hence causing accumulation of metabolic byproducts.

Here are some ways in which you can deal with it:

* Consuming alcohol or food that has excess salt and is oily, especially later in the day, causes puffiness due to water retention.

* Practice five clockwise and five anticlockwise gentle circular movements with a moisturiser rich in vitamins especially C, E, K taking care to be very gentle not pressing too hard on this delicate skin as a hard press can cause further damage.

* Apply under-eye cream 40 minutes before going to bed. Vitamin K, C and E based creams are effective treatments for dark circles. Gentle rubbing in clockwise and anti-clockwise helps to improve blood circulation and also stimulates lymphatic circulation.

* Soak green tea-bags in ice water or freeze it and place on the eyes. This helps to shrink the blood vessels thus lessening dark circles.

* Micro-needling with antioxidants vitamins and brightening agents like liquorice arbutus helps to build the strength in the periorbital skin.

* Fat grafting or fillers help to restore the melted or slipped fat pockets which thus corrects the concave deformity to a convex reflecting one, getting rid of the tired look.