Increasing tear production involves a combination of habits, environmental changes, nutrition, and sometimes medical treatment. Your eyes produce tears through a complex system involving multiple glands, and a breakdown at any point in that system can leave your eyes dry, irritated, and uncomfortable. The good news: most of the factors that reduce tear production are modifiable.
How Your Eyes Make Tears
Understanding what you’re working with helps the rest make sense. Your tear film isn’t a simple layer of water. It has three distinct layers: an outer oil layer (produced by tiny glands along your eyelid margins), a thick middle water layer (produced by the lacrimal glands above each eye), and an inner mucus layer (produced by cells on the eye’s surface). Each layer has a job, and problems with any one of them can cause dryness.
The lacrimal gland produces tears by moving salt ions into its ducts, which pulls water along by osmosis through specialized water channels. This process is triggered by nerve signals, specifically through the parasympathetic nervous system. That detail matters because several newer treatments work by directly stimulating those nerve pathways rather than just replacing tears with drops.
Blink More, Especially at Screens
This is the simplest change you can make and one of the most effective. When you’re relaxed, you blink about 22 times per minute. When reading a book, that drops to around 10. When staring at a screen, it falls to roughly 7 blinks per minute, a reduction of nearly 70%. Every blink spreads a fresh layer of tears across your eye and stimulates the glands to keep producing. Fewer blinks means your tear film breaks apart and evaporates between refreshes.
The fix is deliberate blinking. Every 20 minutes during screen work, close your eyes fully for a few seconds or take a 20-second break looking at something distant. Some people find it helpful to place a small reminder note on their monitor. Over time, conscious blinking during focused tasks becomes more automatic.
Adjust Your Environment
Dry indoor air accelerates tear evaporation, making your glands work harder to keep up. Indoor humidity of about 45% or higher is the target for eye comfort. In winter or in air-conditioned spaces, humidity can drop well below that. A simple hygrometer (available for a few dollars) tells you where you stand, and a room humidifier can close the gap.
Beyond humidity, direct airflow is a major culprit. Ceiling fans, car vents, and forced-air heating all blow across the eye surface and strip away tears faster than they can be replaced. Positioning yourself away from vents, or redirecting airflow, makes a noticeable difference for many people. If you spend long hours in dry or windy conditions, wraparound glasses or moisture chamber glasses create a protective microenvironment around your eyes.
Omega-3 Fatty Acids
Omega-3 supplementation has clinical evidence behind it for dry eye relief. In a study published in Ophthalmology, participants who took 360 mg of EPA and 240 mg of DHA daily (split into two capsules) for 30 days saw a measurable decrease in tear evaporation rate, an increase in tear secretion, and an improvement in symptoms. Those are modest doses, roughly what you’d get from a standard fish oil supplement.
Dietary sources include fatty fish (salmon, mackerel, sardines), flaxseed, chia seeds, and walnuts. If you prefer supplements, look for products that list EPA and DHA content separately on the label so you can verify the dose. Results aren’t immediate. Most people need at least a few weeks of consistent intake before noticing a change.
Keep Your Oil Glands Healthy
The oil-producing meibomian glands along your upper and lower eyelids play a crucial role that’s easy to overlook. Their secretions form the outermost layer of your tear film and act as a barrier against evaporation. When these glands become blocked or stop functioning (a condition called meibomian gland dysfunction), tear evaporation rates can triple or quadruple. One study found that eyes with significant gland loss had an evaporative rate more than three times higher than healthy eyes.
Warm compresses are the first-line home treatment. A clean washcloth soaked in warm water (or a microwavable eye mask designed for this purpose) held against closed eyelids for 5 to 10 minutes softens the thickened oil blocking the glands. Follow with a gentle massage of the eyelids, pressing lightly from the base of the lashes outward, to help express the oil. Doing this once or twice daily can gradually restore oil flow and reduce evaporation. Keeping your eyelids clean with diluted baby shampoo or a commercial lid scrub also prevents the buildup that contributes to blockages.
Prescription Eye Drops That Reduce Inflammation
Chronic dry eye often involves a cycle of inflammation on the eye’s surface. The dryness irritates the tissue, which triggers an immune response, which damages the tear-producing cells further, which worsens the dryness. Breaking that cycle is the goal of two widely prescribed eye drops.
Cyclosporine (sold as Restasis and Cequa) works by suppressing the activity of T-cells, a type of immune cell that drives the inflammatory damage on the eye surface. With inflammation reduced, the lacrimal gland and surface cells can recover and resume healthier tear production. The catch is that it takes weeks to months of twice-daily use before the full benefit appears, and the drops can sting when you first start.
Lifitegrast (sold as Xiidra) takes a different approach: it blocks two specific proteins on cell surfaces from binding to each other, which prevents T-cells from initiating inflammation in the first place. It tends to work a bit faster than cyclosporine, with some people noticing improvement within a few weeks. Both require a prescription and are typically considered after artificial tears alone haven’t been enough.
Nasal Spray That Triggers Natural Tears
One of the more novel treatments takes advantage of the nerve pathway your body already uses to make tears. A prescription nasal spray containing varenicline (sold as Tyrvaya) activates nerve endings inside the nose that connect to the same parasympathetic pathway controlling the lacrimal gland. A quick spray in each nostril stimulates the release of your own natural tears within minutes.
Because it triggers the full natural tear response rather than supplementing with artificial ingredients, the tears produced contain the normal mix of water, proteins, growth factors, and antimicrobial compounds that artificial drops lack. Clinical trials showed meaningful improvements in both tear production measurements and patient-reported symptoms. The most common side effect is sneezing or a mild cough right after use.
Punctal Plugs to Retain Existing Tears
If your eyes do produce tears but they drain away too quickly, punctal plugs offer a mechanical solution. Your eyelids have small openings (puncta) near the inner corners that drain tears into the nose, which is why your nose runs when you cry. Punctal plugs are tiny, rice-grain-sized devices that an eye doctor inserts into one or both of these openings. The procedure takes seconds and is painless.
By blocking the drain, plugs keep your natural tears on the eye surface longer. Some are made of collagen and dissolve over a few months (useful as a trial), while silicone versions last indefinitely but can be removed at any time. They’re often combined with other treatments. If inflammation is reducing tear quality, plugs alone won’t solve the problem, but they can amplify the benefit of treatments that improve the tears themselves.
Reducing Tear Evaporation Directly
For people whose dryness stems primarily from meibomian gland dysfunction, a newer prescription drop called perfluorohexyloctane (sold as Miebo) takes a unique approach. Rather than increasing tear production or reducing inflammation, it forms a thin protective layer over the eye’s surface that slows evaporation of the water layer beneath. It’s typically considered after artificial tears, cyclosporine, and lifitegrast haven’t provided sufficient relief.
Putting It Together
The most effective approach usually combines several of these strategies. Behavioral changes (blinking habits, screen breaks) and environmental adjustments (humidity, airflow) form the foundation. Omega-3 supplementation and warm compresses address the oil layer and overall tear quality. If those steps aren’t enough, prescription options target specific parts of the problem, whether that’s inflammation, nerve signaling, tear drainage, or evaporation. An eye care provider can help identify which part of your tear system is underperforming and match treatments accordingly.