The whites of your eyes can lose their brightness for several reasons, from minor irritation and poor sleep to sun damage and underlying health conditions. Some causes are easy to fix with lifestyle changes or the right eye drops, while others need medical attention. Here’s what actually works, what doesn’t, and what to avoid.
Why Your Eyes Look Red or Yellow
Redness and yellowing have different causes, and knowing which one you’re dealing with matters. Red or bloodshot eyes happen when tiny blood vessels on the eye’s surface dilate, often from dryness, allergies, lack of sleep, screen fatigue, or irritants like smoke and chlorine. This is usually temporary and cosmetic.
Yellow discoloration is a different story. A faint yellow tint can develop from UV damage over time, forming small raised patches called pingueculae on the white of the eye. These are caused by sun exposure and worsened by chronic dryness or wind, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine. A more noticeable yellowing across the entire white of the eye, however, can signal elevated bilirubin in the blood. Bilirubin is a waste product your liver filters out when breaking down old red blood cells. If your liver isn’t clearing it efficiently, bilirubin accumulates and tints the thin membrane over your eye yellow. This becomes visible at bilirubin levels around 2.5 to 3 mg/dL, well above the normal range of 0.2 to 1.3 mg/dL. If both eyes look uniformly yellow, that warrants a medical evaluation rather than a cosmetic fix.
Eye Drops That Reduce Redness
If your main concern is bloodshot eyes, over-the-counter redness relief drops are the most immediate solution, but not all drops work the same way.
Traditional redness-relief drops containing ingredients like tetrahydrozoline or naphazoline constrict both the small arteries and veins on the eye’s surface. They work fast, but they come with a well-documented downside: rebound redness. When you stop using them, your blood vessels dilate even more than before, making your eyes look worse. In a case series of 70 people who used these drops daily for a median of three years, over 70% showed signs of rebound redness or loss of effectiveness.
A newer option, brimonidine 0.025% (sold as Lumify), works differently. It primarily targets the veins on the eye’s surface rather than both arteries and veins. This distinction matters because constricting arteries reduces oxygen delivery to surrounding tissue, which triggers the rebound effect. By leaving arteries mostly alone, brimonidine avoids that cycle. In clinical trials, rebound redness occurred in just 1.3% of participants. If you want whiter-looking eyes for a specific occasion, this is the safer choice for occasional use.
Lubricating drops (artificial tears) won’t make redness vanish instantly, but they address the root cause when dryness is the problem. If your eyes are red because they’re dry and irritated, consistent use of preservative-free artificial tears throughout the day often reduces background redness over time.
Lifestyle Changes That Help
Sleep is the simplest factor. During sleep, your eyes stay closed, stay lubricated, and blood vessels have time to return to their normal size. Consistently getting less than six hours tends to leave eyes visibly red and puffy by morning.
Hydration plays a direct role in tear quality. Your tear film is the first surface light passes through, and when tear production drops or tears evaporate too quickly, the resulting dryness triggers inflammation on the eye’s surface. That inflammation damages surface cells and makes eyes look irritated. Drinking enough water won’t transform your eyes overnight, but chronic mild dehydration contributes to the dry, dull look many people are trying to fix.
Diet has a measurable impact on ocular surface health. Vitamin A supports the growth and maintenance of the cells lining the eye’s surface. Long-term deficiency can cause the thin membrane over the eye to become rough and opaque. Vitamin C is concentrated in tear fluid at high levels, where it acts as an antioxidant protecting the eye’s surface. Good dietary sources of vitamin A include sweet potatoes, carrots, leafy greens, and eggs. Vitamin C comes from citrus fruits, bell peppers, and berries. In clinical studies, supplementing vitamins C and E improved tear production and tear film stability in diabetic patients with dry eyes.
Reducing alcohol intake also helps. Alcohol is processed by the liver, and heavy drinking impairs the liver’s ability to clear bilirubin. Even moderate drinking can cause temporary vasodilation that makes eyes look bloodshot.
Protecting Your Eyes From UV Damage
Sun exposure is one of the most underappreciated causes of eyes losing their white appearance over time. UV radiation causes pingueculae, those yellowish, slightly raised spots that develop on the whites of the eyes, typically on the side closest to the nose. In more advanced cases, a growth called a pterygium can extend onto the cornea itself.
These changes are cumulative and largely irreversible without surgery. The best prevention is wearing sunglasses that block 100% of UV-A and UV-B rays during daytime hours, especially around water, sand, or snow where UV reflects upward past the brow. Wraparound styles offer the most coverage. If you spend significant time outdoors, a wide-brimmed hat adds further protection. Keeping your eyes lubricated in dry, windy conditions also limits the irritation that accelerates these growths.
DIY Methods to Avoid
Social media is full of suggestions for whitening eyes with honey drops, lemon juice, or diluted baking soda. None of these are safe. Honey-based eye drops can introduce bacteria or fungi directly onto the eye’s surface, causing infection. Even diluted honey is painful to apply and can damage the outer lining of the eye. Undiluted versions are worse. Poison Control has specifically warned against this trend, noting that the eye’s tissue is extremely sensitive and that homemade preparations lack the sterility controls of FDA-approved drops.
Lemon juice is acidic enough to cause chemical burns on the cornea. Baking soda solutions can shift the pH of the eye’s surface and cause irritation or ulceration. Any short-term “whitening” effect from these substances comes from the eye producing excess tears in response to the irritation, not from any actual improvement. The risk of lasting damage, including scarring and vision loss, far outweighs any cosmetic benefit.
Cosmetic Eye-Whitening Surgery
A procedure called cosmetic conjunctival resection (sometimes marketed as “I-Brite”) removes the thin, blood vessel-rich membrane over the white of the eye and sometimes applies a chemical called mitomycin C to prevent regrowth. The new tissue that grows back is typically whiter and less vascularized.
This procedure carries serious risks. Published case reports document complications including tissue death on the white of the eye, deep infection inside the eye, and chronic inflammation requiring long-term immune-suppressing medications. One patient in a published case series developed an infection that threatened their vision entirely. Researchers have described these as “sight-threatening complications” and urged caution. For most people seeking brighter-looking eyes, the risks of surgery dramatically outweigh the cosmetic benefit.
A Practical Routine for Brighter Eyes
For most people, the combination of a few simple habits makes a noticeable difference within weeks. Prioritize seven to eight hours of sleep per night. Stay well hydrated. Wear UV-blocking sunglasses outdoors. Use preservative-free artificial tears if your eyes feel dry, especially after extended screen time. If you want faster results for a specific event, a low-dose brimonidine drop like Lumify can reduce visible redness within minutes without the rebound risk of older formulas.
If your eyes have a persistent yellow tint that doesn’t match sun-damaged spots, or if the yellowing appeared suddenly, that’s worth investigating with a doctor. It could reflect a liver or blood condition that no eye drop or lifestyle change will address on its own.