Dryness of eyes could be terribly annoying problem requiring repeated application of eye drops to keep the eyes wet. The dryness can lead to a lot of irritation, itching, rubbing of eyes and resultant redness, swelling etc. This condition may be associated with dryness of mouth too. The reason for dryness is the inability to produce tear. Tear glands are situated in the upper outer corner of the socket of the eye. They go on continuously manufacturing tears (just like saliva from the salivary glands in the month) which lubricates the surface of the eye ball thus preventing any rubbing when we blink. Dryness occurs when the tear glands fail to secret the tears. Why does this happen? One of the common reasons for this is destruction of the tear glands by autoimmunity. While blood cells which are the soldiers of the defense system in the body go on destroying the tear glands in a fight (inflammation through antibody production).

Why autoimmunity?
    
Autoimmunity (fight against self cells) is because of inability of the immune defense system to differentiate self from non-self. It is in fact a disturbed perception of immune system. We now clearly know how the brain and nervous system are involved in sending these wrong messages to immune system. It is not difficult for you to realize that the brain (the apparatus which is like the receiver set of a television or radio) can get exhausted if you go on thinking and worrying continuously without enough rest. This is the relationship between life style stress reactions and the dryness of eyes. What yoga makes us understand is this downward causation which has resulted in your problem is not unidirectional and is reversible. You can retrace this path by working at mind level, as well as the physical level (the eyes). The simplicity of yoga is that the sages have showed this as a problem of imbalance between activity and rest (tension and relaxation; Dukha and Shanthi) which can be reversed by increasing and deepening the levels of rest at all levels (physical, prana, mind, intellect, emotions) of your personality. Hence in the integrated approach of yoga therapy for dryness of eyes, you need to spend one hour/day to practice

Breathing exercises - Rabbit breathing, Shasankasana breathing and tiger breathing.

Suryanamaska-dynamic ten step method.

About 8 asanas with emphasis on maintaining in forward bending positions.

Pranayama - sectional breathing, nadisuddhi, bhramari in shanmukhi mudra.

Nadanusandhana and

Tarataka.

When you perform trataka please note that during Jyothi trataka you should focus on the lamp for 20 seconds (unlike normal persons who can start with 60 seconds of focusing) followed by 20 seconds of palming. Repeat this at least 5 rounds, gradually increase the duration of focusing by 10 seconds once in a week up to 60 seconds (followed by 60 sec of palming with deep breathing and chanting of Bhramari).

A journalist lady of 42 years came to undergo this program at the residential yoga health home of Prashanti kutiram for this problem of autoimmune dryness of eyes. She was using eye drops of artificial tears once in 15 to 30 minutes and had developed frustrations as she was finding it almost impossible to manage her profession. Within 2 weeks of her stay at prashanti she was quite clear that her problem was very much related to the tension related to her work and family responsibility.