Yep, eye boogers are part of the prize. As stated the mucous is one part of the three layers of tears. If the facial nerve is not allowing your eye to close completely, it is drying out and causing irritation. When you eye gets irritated it creates tears to wash it out. Because of the facial nerve's affect on the lacrimal gland, you don't usually get the real liquid part of the tears, so the mucous still develops, as does the oily part. With no blink reflex and no water, they can't blend and distribute over the surface of the eye the way they used to -- the way the other eye automatically does.
So you'll end up with the mucous clumping and sticking to your eye (because the oil glands still work, too). I frequently don't notice when my eye starts to dry out, so if I see a bit of mucous it acts as my Early Warning System to take care of the eye NOW.
Keep in mind that you could also be having a reaction to your eye drops -- and yes some gels especially can goop/stick up (but not mucous) your eyelashes. Sometimes it has to do with the viscocity of the drops and sometimes you may have an allergy to one of the preservatives. I was told that if you are using drops more than 4 times a day to switch to a drop without preservatives.
I have a hard time keeping my fingers off of it. Usually I'll fill a sandwich size ziplock bag with hot tapwater and let that sit on my eye about 5-10 minutes, then can use a wet, lint-free cloth over my closed eye and it comes free. I frequently use the warm ziplock bag on my eye when I first wake up -- takes care of any flaking & goop and also allows me to move slowly into my morning.
The ziplock is also great filled with cold tapwater as well if you have any swelling or conjunctivitis.
Hope this helps. Claudia (a.k.a."Alice Rapunzel"}
