Hello Great blog. I had that eye twitch thing when I first got my computer after a long (six months or so) break from having one. Now for something completly different. Where is the Suntory Brewery? Also whats the easiest way to get there?

Hey, happened here after a search for twitching eyelids.
Not read you blog, but liked the bit in this page

Yup – here for the twitching eyelids. Maybe it’s Microsoft taking over my eyes…

-Brew

i think i know for a 100% fact!! that eye twitching is linked to stress!

i am 19 year old university student,, and last week, i have had the most stressfull week EVER,,personally,

monday i had exams all the day,, than tuesday i went out clubbin, than wednesday morning i had another exam , than thursday i had to go and sort out personal problems related to finance and i got stressed out about that,,,, than on friday i had a driving test exam,,

all throughout this week i had less than 6 hours sleep,,,

COFFEE EVERY MORNING!! to get me through the week! alcohol,, red bull,, ON THE PC, all the time! watch tv alot!! my contact lenses have also been irritating me,,sometimes,,,

after the week had ended i started to notice my lower left eyelid twitching,, and it does this every 5-7 minutes,,,,its NOTHING major, but its just annoying and now its lasted 4 days! my optician has said its linked to high caffeine and less sleep and alot of stress,,,

im so glad i found this site, cause i was getting paranoid i thought i had parkinsons disease,,,

i have also found that,, the spasms go away once u stop thinking about it and concentrate on something else,, but when u start to worry about it,, the twitching! starts again,,

so it might be a stress related mental thing!

anyway take care everyone!

Hello blog
I have had twitchy eyes for about 6 months and its driving me cuckoo, went to docs and she gave me a script for benzhexol hydrochloride (not sure wether or not to take this medication).

But yes I think you are right about it being a stress/mental thingy.

take care

Brenda

Nothing like a little reason in a world full of anecdotes:

http://www.kellogg.umich.edu/conditions/oculoplastics/eyelid.spasm.html

Twitch away! I do.

cheers

Yep, came for the Twitching Eyelids, stayed for the buffet… Ya think there might be a connection with Twitching Eyelids and overuse of the computer? Might help if I could remember where I put my glasses three months ago… always lose those buggers. Gotta go – more “surfing” to do… with my good eye.

On month number 6 with the left eyelid flip.flip.flip

I’ve been working a rotating shift for just over three years and I think that may one cause of my problem. I’m always sleep deprived and I’m sure that also increases stress. Perhaps I should also stop drinking three Redbulls before I go to work.

Twitch…twitch…I came for the twitching eyelids too! What a relief…someone told me it was related to high blood pressure and lack of exercise…twitch…twitch…twitch…twitch…of course that made sense to me, I knew it must be the truth…new OLD house, new puppy chewing up everything in sight, long hours at work, short hours at sleep, gallons of coffee and soda…keep on twitching!!

Twitch…twitch…I came for the twitching eyelids too! What a relief…someone told me it was related to high blood pressure and lack of exercise…twitch…twitch…twitch…twitch…of course that made sense to me, I knew it must be the truth…new OLD house, new puppy chewing up everything in sight, long hours at work, short hours at sleep, gallons of coffee and soda…keep on twitching!!

My husband left for Iraq 3 weeks ago and my left eye has been twitching ever since. A lot of info that I’ve found says it comes from stress and fatigue. That would be right because I have been really stressed out and worrying a lot. I enjoyed the other comments so I decided to post one as well. Thanks!

As everyone else, got here while looking for eyelid twitching! The darn thing won’t stop! As a mom of a teething baby I agree with the whole stress/fatigue factor…as I sit here among a sinkful of dishes, a laundry room full of unwashed clothes and an 8 month old who will-not-sleep…I believe that my eyelid is twitching as I hold in all of my stress and will probably blow up at the next poor checkout person who takes 8000 hours ringing up baby formula because I use a frigging coupon that looks like a frigging check. I mean come on…its not rocket science. I think a cruise to the Bahamas would cure this for me. Yep, definately a cruise to the Bahamas.

My left eyelid was twitching on and off for 31/2 weeks. Finally, yesterday I bought vitamin B and potassium at the food store and took both. The eyelid twitch went away. Hope this helps all you twitchers.

twitch twitch…..there’s definitely something to this twitch business. We all want to know why we’re twitching. I take fistfuls of vitamins and eat mostly organic foods. I do NOT get enough sleep and am stressing. I think it is stress/sleep related. Hilarious reading about all you other twitchers out there!

I’m a 78 year old, very healthy, twitching more than a year now. My Cardio put a 24 hour heart monitor on me which was negative, and my Optho annual thorough exam gives me a very high score on my eyes. He says twitching is from stress,but I find it hard to believe. I’ve been retired 17 years now and (I think) under little or no real stress. Why would stress set in a year ago? Twitching (for me) is more than an annoyance. It affects my reading because printed matter “jumps” when it happens. I plan to scour the internet and try some of the remedies I find.

I’m a 78 year old, very healthy, twitching more than a year now. My Cardio put a 24 hour heart monitor on me which was negative, and my Optho annual thorough exam gives me a very high score on my eyes. He says twitching is from stress,but I find it hard to believe. I’ve been retired 17 years now and (I think) under little or no real stress. Why would stress set in a year ago? Twitching (for me) is more than an annoyance. It affects my reading because printed matter “jumps” when it happens. I plan to scour the internet and try some of the remedies I find.

Well, who would have known that searching Google for “twitching eyelid” would enlighten me so much. My left eyelid has been twitching for about 4 weeks and after consultation with my optometrist, he said this could be related to incorrect prescription glasses, magnesium deficiency or stress. I will try the vitamin B and potassium remedy and let you know how I get on. Great to speak to other twitchers – my friends and family think I am twitching-obsessed!!

Wow! I guess I am glad that I am not the only twitcher. I was at my eye doctor, she did an exam and nothing was wrong, probably stress. I do take vitamins daily, and do seem to be healthy. I can make my eyes twitch at will. All I have to do is squeeze my eyes shut with a long blink. Both my eyes go crazy after that. Then all will settle down and either one eyelid or the other will just twitch on its own. I think the most annoying thing about this is when you are talking to someone and it starts, very distracting and somewhat embarrassing.

Wow…I had no Idea there are so many twitching eye lids. I thought I was going crazy! I tend to agree that it is stress/fatique related. I was really stressed when mine started and only got about 5 hours of sleep every night. Then I took 3 weeks off from work and went to a nice sunny beach and after three days there it stopped.

hi twitchers. i’ve had the twitch on my upper right eyelid for 2 weeks now. it doesnt twitch all day. seems to do it more in the morning and at night. i have a very stressful job that i am very tied to. i have a 3 year old and a wife that is nine months pregnant. my mom has lots of problems and my brother is messed up on drugs. i worry about them ALOT. i’m thinking all these things going on add alot of stress to my life. so eyelid twitching i believe is from stress. any suggestions for me would be great. i cant stand the twitch. its hard for me to deal with people at work with it. thanks.

The upper eyelid of my left eye has been twitching off and on daily for almost 4 months now. Everyone told me that stress was causing it. We took a cruise almost 2 months ago and that didn’t help because the stress started up again as soon as we returned. My eye twitched on the cruise as well. It is annoying and embarassing when I am having a face to face conversation with someone and my eye goes crazy twitching. This morning I noticed for the first time that my lower eyelid of the same eye has now started to do the twitching thing. I have been living with a sleep deficit for over 18 years and get no exercise other than cleaning my house.

I’m 21 and my lower left eyelid has been twitching for a little over 2 weeks or so, wanted to make sure i wasn’t crazy so i did a google like many other’s here :P. I recently quit my job to start working with a buddy who’s starting his own business, but I live at home with my parents and that’s where 95% of my stress comes from (I’m moving out ASAP). Anyway I’ve noticed it’s VERY similar to the hiccups in that if you can stop thinking about it, it will go away almost immediately. (Much easier said than done) I almost never get the hiccups anymore (never for more than 10 seconds) because i’ve discovered i can control them and i’m hoping this will go away in the same way. Hope that helps someone

This is my second day with this weird upper eyelid twitching. It comes and goes alot during the day. Does not stick around for long before it goes. I have had sore neck muscles for about 1.5 months as I had a bad sleep and woke up that way. I was thinking they may be related, but I never knew about this eye twitching affecting others. I will just grin and bear it and get some sleep and no caffine for awhile and give it a week and if it continues, see a doctor.

I am SO glad to have found this page and the twitchy things you’ve all said. I find it slightly irritating, but no one can ever see it in my eyes and doctors have always said it is “nothing”.

My eyelids have been twitching when tired/stressed for about 5 years!! I get twitchy in one, the other, or both eyes. After the first year of it, I’d already figured out the twitch was stress-related, but hadn’t had it confirmed until I’d seen what you’ve all said. I drink coffee too.

Think of it like I do: I am blessed because I have a clear – unmistakable – signal that I am stressed. When the twitch starts, I will try to find a way to calm myself down, relax and really get some sleep – and those things do help. By virtue of the twitching, I sometimes know that working with certain things and people are stressing me!

Stress is such a harmful thing that I now (especially after your reassurance!!) can – in a slightly perverted way – see “that stress twitch thingy in my eyelids” as an irritating, but truly harmless and good thing.

I am in nursing school and have a BA in biology. School stress causes my eyelid to twitch and sometimes my head moves involuntarily when I am involved in a conversation. (Especially when my instructor is not likely to accept a new idea – and I have many.) I have learned that electrolytes and vitamins play a critical role in transmission of nerve impulses. I believe that too much or too little potassium and vitamin B can set this delicate balance off. This means that I am not certain if I should take vitamins or if I am above the daily limit. I have also noticed that certain coffee creamers make me twitch – I believe they contain a derivative of potassium. I hope this helps – happy twitching.

The note saying high blood pressure is a cause of eyelid twitching is likely a bit of a misnomer. Fact is that a vast number of folks with high blood pressure take a diuretic like hctz to help control their high blood pressure. These drugs often cause patients to loose potassium! So high blood pressure is a correlation but not a cause…

One can of low sodium V8 contains 620mg of potassium!

I’ve heard that people who forget to drink V8 have high occurrances of both sore foreheads and twitchy eyelids.

DAMN AND I THOUGH I WAS THE ONLY FOO WIT A TWITCHIN ETELID…..NOW I DONT FEEL SO RETARDED…..BUT MY LEG STARTED TWITCHIN TOO NOW…..

The lower part of my eyelid on my left eye has been twitching on and off every few minutes for the past week now. I have been working a summer job that is about 55 hours a week and have been getting minimal sleep. When I am at school I stay up late and do a lot of stressful school work with minimal sleep and this has never happened. I have also been working out a lot lately to go with my minimal sleep and working and I think physical fatigue has a lot to do with the eyelid thing. I am going to try all this vitamin ideas though. thanks everyone!

Had the same left eye twitch, got a good night sleep and its a little better today. I’m going to bed early again tonight. We’ll see.

I’m no doctor, so take my words with caution.
To the ones with 60s, 70s and with no reason to stress, probably its our common future or present problem, aging. Go see a doctor, may be Botulinum Toxin Injections can help (see in general http://www.blepharospasm.org or, for example http://familydoctor.org/x1586.xml if this one don’t work read it here: http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:cIaxEmvbxz4J:familydoctor.org/x1586.xml+%22Botulinum+toxin%22&hl=en But there are dozens of pages about that.
To the young ones that are vegetarian, the lack of vitamin b12 can be helping to cause your eyelid twitch. But I don’t know if this is really truth… even so, it wont kill you to take vitamins of the B complex or “leaven of Beer” (Saccharomyches carlsbergensis) (i don’t know the english word for lievito di birra, levedura de cerveja), Actually, the lack of vitamin B12 can kill you…
For the younger ones (20s, 30, 40s), is normally stress, fatigue and too much caffeine. If the switch goes on, take some long hot baths (more than one hour; not a shower, lay down, close your eyes in warm water, put your legs up, some calm music)… if that don’t help the first time, do it every day or so, if necessary take some tranquilizers before you enter the bath. This can work even in the more heavy cases of Hemifacial Spasm, where some little muscle in your face keeps twitching for days. Hope this helps.

I have had this left eye upper and lower twitch/spasm for 35 or so days! It was driving me nuts! I went for my eye exam and my eye DR. said it was stress. I am on summer break but my eye kept twitching. I went to my regular DR. and he said it was a potassium and magnesium deficiency and
sent me to get a very expensive multi-vitamin. And it has helped there have been three days where my eye will not twitch at all, then all of sudden it will twitch for 20 minutes and then stop for the rest of the day. Where as before the multi vitamins, it would twitch all day long!
Also, it you feel it is stress related, potassium and magnesium have something that help control the nervous system and stress. Try it! It has helped me a great deal!
Try avocadoes, plums, fresh spinach, soy beans they are rich in potassium/magnesium. Also, coffee depletes potassium and magnesium. Good luck to all of you, I hated my twitch!

Well I’m here for the eyelid twitching too! – how bizarre – I’m sure mine is lack of sleep – I’ve had it in the past and it doesn’t last for long – strange though – last year I had the most stressful year of my life ever (and I’m talking BIG stress here folks) and I felt the healthiest I ever have – no twitching – no migraines (which I’m prone to) – nothing! – oh well – just wanted to leave my mark here

Dear fellow ‘twitchers’ MY UPPER LEFT EYELID IS DRIVING ME INSANE! *sigh* It’s been twitching ever since I decided to tell my parents who just so happen to be fundamentalist christians that I am a wiccan.. stress related? i can see that.. my nerves are SHOT. So I’m trying some meditation. Maybe a few muscle relaxers……………………….

Glad to find out I am not the only one dealing with twitching eylids. My eyelids started twitching about two years ago. After twitching for about 6 months, I went to my eye doctor. He mentioned the usual remedies: cut back on the caffine, get more sleep, figure out how to deal with stress, use glasses while reading/ on the computer and take a multivitamin. For some of us like me, it’s impossible to get more sleep and deal with stress unless we can somehow win the lottery and quite our jobs. So….I cut back on my coffee drinking, tried new glasses and started taking a multivitamin. Since I use a computer quite a bit, I upgraded my old CRT monitor to a LCD monitor to reduce the flicker. Well…I don’t know which one worked…but my eyes stopped twitching within about three weeks of making these changes. After my eyelids stopped twitching, I started drinking coffee (1 cup/ day) and stopped wearing my glasses (I have pretty good vision). My eyelid twitching stopped for over a year. What a relief!! Unfortunately, about 3 months ago…my eyelids started twitching again. I stopped drinking coffee and switched to a different multivitamin. However, nothing has worked. I have noticed that when I get more sleep…my eyes twitch less. Also, when I think about my eyelids twitching….they start to twitch. If I find a cure, I will let you know.

Glad to find out I am not the only one dealing with twitching eylids. My eyelids started twitching about two years ago. After twitching for about 6 months, I went to my eye doctor. He mentioned the usual remedies: cut back on the caffine, get more sleep, figure out how to deal with stress, use glasses while reading/ on the computer and take a multivitamin. For some of us like me, it’s impossible to get more sleep and deal with stress unless we can somehow win the lottery and quite our jobs. So….I cut back on my coffee drinking, tried new glasses and started taking a multivitamin. Since I use a computer quite a bit, I upgraded my old CRT monitor to a LCD monitor to reduce the flicker. Well…I don’t know which one worked…but my eyes stopped twitching within about three weeks of making these changes. After my eyelids stopped twitching, I started drinking coffee (1 cup/ day) and stopped wearing my glasses (I have pretty good vision). My eyelid twitching stopped for over a year. What a relief!! Unfortunately, about 3 months ago…my eyelids started twitching again. I stopped drinking coffee and switched to a different multivitamin. However, nothing has worked. I have noticed that when I get more sleep…my eyes twitch less. Also, when I think about my eyelids twitching….they start to twitch. If I find a cure, I will let you know.

Glad to find out I am not the only one dealing with twitching eylids. My eyelids started twitching about two years ago. After twitching for about 6 months, I went to my eye doctor. He mentioned the usual remedies: cut back on the caffine, get more sleep, figure out how to deal with stress, use glasses while reading/ on the computer and take a multivitamin. For some of us like me, it’s impossible to get more sleep and deal with stress unless we can somehow win the lottery and quite our jobs. So….I cut back on my coffee drinking, tried new glasses and started taking a multivitamin. Since I use a computer quite a bit, I upgraded my old CRT monitor to a LCD monitor to reduce the flicker. Well…I don’t know which one worked…but my eyes stopped twitching within about three weeks of making these changes. After my eyelids stopped twitching, I started drinking coffee (1 cup/ day) and stopped wearing my glasses (I have pretty good vision). My eyelid twitching stopped for over a year. What a relief!! Unfortunately, about 3 months ago…my eyelids started twitching again. I stopped drinking coffee and switched to a different multivitamin. However, nothing has worked. I have noticed that when I get more sleep…my eyes twitch less. Also, when I think about my eyelids twitching….they start to twitch. If I find a cure, I will let you know.

I stumbled onto this thread searching on blepharospasm and potassium believing potassium, along with stress, may contribute to this problem.

Another likely contributor to lid twitching or spasms (and unwanted head movements) is supressed feelings … which often happpens in stressful situations. Notice the wildly batting eyelids of nervous people being intereviewed on TV. There’s lots about our body to mine from our language. Remember the phrase “didn’t bat an eyelash” to indicate someone who showed no emotion or reaction to something? Almost as an earthquake builds up, I think pressure to fully contain expression of strong feelings can explode in the neurological landscape of our face and head.

Notice how your head naturally shakes vigorously side to side when you freely give a strong negative response to something? Now imagine what might happen if you had to supress all visible signs of (often unconscious) strong negative feelings while your nervous system (fully connected to the unconscious feelings) was telling your head to vigorously shake no! Or just look at your fitful face as you try to surpress a big sneeze. Hope this is helpful.

Hello All!

Great to find a site on a subject that’s obviously quite common to folk. Had lots of laughs reading your posts thanks.

Now listen up, this is something different from the norm. A lot of people have been saying that the causes for twitching eyes/eyelids are stress, high blood pressure etc. etc. Let me tell you something about my Mum. When she get’s twiching eyelids it is a sign. Fair dinkum! this is no joke, it’s true and I’ve seen it happen.
If her right eye/eyelid twitches, someone distant to the family is about to pass away. If it’s the left eye/eyelid it’s a member that’s very close to the family. She says it’s a gift and sure enough this is exactly what happens.
Lately I’ve been getting the twitchy eyelids lots but I’m yet to discover if I’m anything like my Mum. I don’t have high blood pressure and I’m not that overly stressed. Maybe overly worked, yes, but it’s strange that my Mum is getting twitchy eyelids a lot, just recently, this time in the left eye. So sadly a member close to us may be parting soon.
Another thing my Mum gets is itchy palms, if it’s her right it’s money going out, if it’s her left it’s money coming in. If it itches badly in her left palm, it’s lot’s of money coming in and yes, sure enough, this happens! Kinda like Ripley’s Believe it or Not. All I can say is it’s true, no joke, it’s true, I’m a witness to it!
…and dreams, well that’s another story…

God bless All.

HAHAHAHA I’m 14 and my eye twitches. My legs have them too but you can’t see it. It’s right above the knee and on the inside of my leg! Does antone know anything about that? I have knots all down my back so needless to say i get stressed over anything: school life ect. Well let me know bye.

Did anyone notice bad things happening after your left eye twitches and good things happening after your right eye twitching. For males that is. For females it should be opposite. This is an ancient traditional knowledge of India

I am so glad to hear that eye twitching is a common problem.. I definitely think that stress is a cause of this problem. Last weekend, I broke up with my fiance and moved out of the apartment we were sharing… Even though we ended on good terms and are still friendly with each other, I am a very emotional and philosophical person… so this break up affected me mentally. I got to the point where I felt there was nothing else in regards to this break up to talk about.. so I started keeping my feelings to myself. THAT DAY, my right eye started twitching uncontrollably for about two minutes.

Now that I am moved out of the apartment and on my own, I thought the eye twitching would stop… It seems that every time I think about any stressful situation (relationship or not).. my eye will start twitching.

I view this as a sign that I am mentally getting upset and I need to calm down. I am not worried about my health (although, if this persist longer than three weeks.. I will be going to a doctor).. But for now, I recognize my eye twitching as a sign that I am sub-conciously stressing and over analyzing and I need to take a deep breath and calm down.

Talk about eye twitching…its constant…twitch twitch. I feel like an alien has taken over my eyelid…or something like that. Eh, it just gets annoying. I read somewhere that it can happen if u have an over-dose of caffeinne or drink a lot in a short period of time. I got pulled over the other day for speeding…nothing new…and the cop kept looking at me wierd and i realized how bad it was twitching…I think he though I was winking at him trying to get out of it…who knows. But if anyone has a temporary solution to this problem..thatd be GREAT!

Don’t ignore an eyelid twitch. It could be a symptom of a chronic neurological disorder called myasthenia gravis. A teenager came to the neurologist’s office where I worked with the common complaint of an eyelid twitch. He was a college student, lots of studying, stress, etc. But the neurologist suspected myasthenia gravis and after hospital testing it was confirmed. This disorder can be treated and can even go into remission. But don’t ignore that twitch- it may not be just a benign “stress” sign.

I AM ALSO AN EYE TWITCHER…LEFT UPPER EYE HAS BEEN TWITCHING OFF AND ON FOR ALMOST A WEEK….IM JUST GLAD IM NOT THE ONLY ONE WITH THIS PROBLEM…I WAS STARTING TO GET A LITTLE FREAKED!!

I suffer from the twitching wickedness. Mine has been going on for an agonizing week. Its absolutely aweful. Very annoying. I have been coping with immense amount of stress lately which could contribute to the twitching. But how come it hasnt happened before? I’ve read some posts about not thinking about it. When I have the hiccups i use reverse phsycology… I try to make myself hiccup and its gone. Same thing when you try to show someone your eye is twitching it stops…whats up with that?? They think you’re crazy

This blog is hopping. Who knew there are so many twitchers?! I am officially a twitcher too! My lower left eye twitch started this week. That’s how I found this site and all of you fellow twitchers. Hopefully, more days off and more sleep will be the cure for me… sooooooooooooooon!!! Otherwise, I will be back checking out some of the other theories you have come up with more thoroughly.

Thanks and good luck everyone!

Hi!
I’m 19, F, a Med Student, originally fm India, now in UAE. My right upper eyelid started twitching 2 days ago. So, obviously, as everyone here, I Googled my way here. Now – there are so many posts here, n so many things I found on the net, maybe it’s time to summarize them?

QUESTION 1) For me.. When I was a kid, I smiled only with 1 side of my mouth.. tho now Im ok, and then I had a lazy eye which was rectified in a couple of months with a patch pver the eye. I WOULD like to know if it’s related..
True, I have been very stressed lately.. Professional exams, moving country, family, so much other stuff.. so early in the year already, plus I’ve been drniking coffee every day since the age of 4, AND I have a number of -8.5 in right eye, 1.5 cyliinder –the left one is 1point higher. AND I watch too much tv, AND computer.. guess all the risks are there, just wond what the EXACT cause is..

QUESTION 2) – Couldn’t find alot on 1 versus both eye twitch or upper vs lower, medically.. any professionals out there???…

NOW – For all the info I found —
I) NAME = Blepharospasm
II) INCIDENCE – Very Common
III) ONSET, COURSE – Most commonly stops in a week.
May go on chronically, even years
IV) CAUSES –
NonMedical/Superstition/Public Opinion – Stress, Fatigue, Vitamin Deficiency.

SUPERSTITIONS —
i) Males – right eye – something good will happen to u,
– left eye – something bad
Females – right eye – something bad
– left eye – something good
ii) Another guy in earlier post – said of his Mum –
right eye – distant relative to pass away
left eye – close relative to pass away……
I’m keeping my fingers crosses that neither of above 2 theories is true!!

iii) MY MUM – said if an eye twitches, someone is thinking of you.. 1 bad, the other good. Both = someone cursing you.
For the bad, think of the 1st person who comes to mind, and it’ll go back to them (The curse/bad thoughts, not the twitch)
Well, she also said it’s probably Vitamin deficiency or too much computer n lack of sleep — for ME!!

MEDICAL CAUSES – fatigue, lack of sleep, habit (a nervous tick), local irritation of the cornea or conjunctiva (misdirected eyelash or cyst; dryness), unilateral blepharospasm, and hemifacial spasm.
Early sign of Facial Paralysis, Possible sign of Myasthenia gravis.
Also – may be familial – uni/bi lateral

V) PATHOGENESIS – Related to defect in nerve transmission, probably in the basal ganglia… the place for emotion, intelligenc, etc… which gets me thinking… will that affect your IQ? Give you a Nervous Breakdown?…

Anyway, it’s a defect in circuit activity, rather than a defect at a specific locus. If the central control center fails to regulate blinking in blepharospasm, it is believed to be only one component of an overloaded, defective circuit. This circuit forms a blepharospasm vicious cycle, which has a sensory limb, a central control center located in the midbrain, and a motor limb. The sensory limb responds to multifactorial stimuli, including light, corneal or eyelid irritation, pain, emotion, stress, or various other trigeminal stimulants. These stimuli are transmitted to the central control center, which may be genetically predisposed or weakened by injury or age. This abnormal central control center fails to regulate the positive feedback circuit. The motor pathway is composed of the facial nucleus, facial nerve, and orbicularis oculi, corrugator, and procerus muscles. Other facial muscles also may be involved.

VI) Frequency:
In the US: It is estimated that there are at least 50,000 cases of blepharospasm in the United States, with up to 2000 new cases diagnosed annually. The prevalence of blepharospasm in the general population is approximately 5 in 100,000.
Mortality/Morbidity: At one end of the clinical spectrum, essential blepharospasm is manifested by simple increased blink rate and intermittent eyelid spasms, while at the other end of the spectrum, blepharospasm is a disabling condition with ocular pain and functional blindness. Patients may report that they are disabled to the point where they have stopped watching television, reading, driving, and/or walking. Patients may develop anxiety, avoid social contact, become depressed, become occupationally disabled, and become suicidal.

Sex: A female preponderance of 1.8:1 exists.

Age: The mean age of onset of blepharospasm is 56 years, and two thirds of patients are age 60 years or older.

VII) Conditions relieving blepharospasm included sleep (75%), relaxation (55%), inferior gaze (27%), artificial tears (24%), traction on eyelids (22%), talking (22%), singing (20%), and humming (19%).

VIII) TREATMENT – pharmacotherapy, botulinum toxin injections, and surgical intervention. Unconventional treatments have included faith healing, herbal remedies, hypnosis, and acupuncture, yoga ie Stress relief.

The first line of treatment for all patients should address the sensory limb of the blepharospasm vicious cycle circuit. Such measures include wearing tinted sunglasses with ultraviolet blocking to decrease the poorly understood cause of painful light sensitivity (photo-oculodynia). Lid hygiene to decrease irritation and blepharitis should be encouraged. Frequent applications of artificial tears and punctal occlusion to alleviate dry eyes often improve symptoms.

IX) COMPLICATIONS –
Ptosis post Botox injection
Palsy after seventh denervation
Scarring and edema after myectomy

Hope this helps all you twitchers out there!!
ANy advice re: my 2 Qs – gn at the beginning – would be appreciated.

For the last week my eye has been twitching- twitch-twitch.
Three twitches in the right eye every few minutes. It was so bothersome today I had to go on line. I HAVE NEVER LAUGHED SO HARD– but the twitching is still here, so I don’t think stress has a thing to do with it.
********************************
This twitch is such a bitch
I hope it goes away
because Im going a bit looney
I think I have to say
Id rather have the knee twitch that young boy had today
So my friends can look me in the eye and not have to say
HEY YOUR EYE IS TWITCHING!!

My lower right eyelid has been twitching now for 5 weeks!!! It is so damn annoying! I’m a very big eye-contact person and since this started, I’m finding myself looking away during conversations with people. A couple of weeks ago, I went on a job interview and had to explain the twitch so they didn’t think I was a freak or something. It did stop for a week, but then it started up again two days after I got engaged… I’m thrilled about the engagement. Maybe I’m thinking about all of the planning in the year ahead. I recently lost 32 pounds on the South Beach Diet (low-carb) and someone told me that they developed an eye twitch while on Atkins. So this potassium/magnesium/B vitamin thing seems to make sense. During the week my eye stopped twitching, I was taking my vitamins regularly. Then after my engagement, I guess I was preoccupied and forgot to take them…then my eye started twitching again. And I did notice that my carb-smart vitamins have higher amounts of vitamin B in them compared to other multivitamins. So I will make sure I take my vitamins regularly and maybe try to drink a V8 like that one guy said to do. We’ll see. I’ll keep everyone posted. I do want to say thank you to all the fellow twitchers out there that posted comments…they really helped me feel like less of a freak!

I’m a uni student who’s getting not enough sleep for the past 3 years. I frequently get tension headaches or a numb feeling in my head. Last thurs, my right eye lid started twitching and it goes on and off during the day, and its really damn irritating.

I’ve heard people say that twitching on different sides(left top or bottom eyelid and right top or bottom eyelid) of your eyelid signifies different meanings(something happy, sad, joyous or somthing that makes u angry is going to happen), but i’m not sure which side signifies which.

I believe that my twitching is due to a buildup of stress/insufficient sleep, however, it’s weird that last thurs when it started, bad things did happen. On that day(thurs)my hamster died, and my friend’s mom died in a tragic car accident. Another good friend of mine broke up with her boyfriend of 6 yrs too. Well, it’s still twitching now after more than a week, supertitious or not, hope nothing else bad will happen!

Good luck to all!

I just want to know if this twitching eye thing comes from high blood pressure! I have been paranoid about this ever since my friend told me that when his mother dosn’t take her blood pressure medicine her eye twithces badly. I am under a lot of stress at work and I think this is the primary cause, but it would sure make me feel better If I knew that this was not the case. So I guess my question is my eye twitches alot do I need to check my blood pressure, or should I chill out becasue it’s just nerves.

Looks like this is becomming an hot spot for eye-twitches, and we’ve hijacked your blog. 😛

Er, yes.. Here also from googling Eye Twitches.

I’ve recently started my own business they I wouldn’t say I’m particulary stressing over it, and as for lack of sleep, I’ve constantly lived with 3/4 hours asleep a night for the past God-knows-how many years so it’s abit odd it would start now.

Although I am not that long of an eye-twitcher, few days but it’s a persistent little blighter.

Last year I went through a stressful period where I was anxious, not sleeping very well, and drinking more alcohol than usual. Soon after, I developed and eye pulsing in my lower right eyelid that was constant…it didn’t go away for 7 months. Then, finally, it stopped on a daily basis…

BUT!!!!

Ever since then, if I drink two or three alcoholic drinks, it comes back instantly. It never fails.

The eye doctor said it could be dehydration, so he gave me eye drops and told me to wash my eyelids, but it hasn’t stopped. It’s like clockwork. And it’s driving me nuts!

It usually goes away by 3 or 4 pm the day after, but then it comes back as soon as I drink .

(I don’t drink that much, but I will drink socially 2-3 nights a week).

Any advice???? Please repsond to astern3@yahoo.com

I have had an eye twitch, lower lid, for about 6 months nearly continous twitching. During that time I have had two remission periods. Once during a vacation. The other time after injection with B12. Both remissions lasted for about two weeks

Hey guess how I found this page. My upper right eyelid has been twitching for several months now. And I am severely stressed, addicted to caffiene, and dont get enough sleep. Thanks everyone for confirming that I am a crazy stressed-out sucka and I need to chill.

First I’m gonna try the B12 and potassium though…

This is my new favourite site. I have had normal hour-long eye twitches in the past, normally when I was really tired. This time I have had the lower-left eyelid twitching away for almost 2 weeks. It’s not so much a twitch as it is a pulse. I have recently become concerned that it was caused by a combination of my birth control pill and smoking more cigarettes because of a new boyfriend. But it’s probably lack of sleep for the same reason. Yeah. There’s a concencus on that on this site. What a relief! I thought I was having an aneurysm! My boss says it’s because I’m in love…hahaha

I would just like to add that my twitch started a week and a half ago and I found out yesterday that my 3 and a half month pregnant sister lost her baby and then today i found out my friend from high school died. Could the superstitions be real??????

My eyes twitched often with different triggers. I finally went to a specialist who said that most twitching is due to stress brought on by dry eyes. He recommended a lubricant eye drop min. of 4 times daily.

Give it a try. It worked for me.

amazing how many eyelid twitchers are searching for answers…found this on a google search as well!
we should form a coalition.
i’m getting ready to start school again for the year (teacher-not-student stress), not getting sleep, chasing four dogs and a toddler…weeeeeeeellllllll-could it be stress and lack of sleep?? throw in my 4 a day dt. coke habit and i think it’s a winner!
if it doesn’t stop before the students show i can always tell them it’s my evil eye and it has special powers….just don’t know what powers i’d like it to have…

hello fellow twitchers
my left eyelid had been twitching for a whole week now
and decided to go to google for an answer
no matter what site i look at for help it says im under stress or havent been getting enough sleep but ive been quite happy lately and ive been getting good amounts of sleep. It’s getting really annoying. I also read somewhere tht it could be to do with high blood pressure.. i have been eating alot more fatty foods lately.. could this be my problem?!?!!

I can’t BELIEVE how many people have Googled this problem — it must be scary for everyone! My upper left eyelid has been twitching occasionally for 2 weeks. It hasn’t gotten too annoying yet, but it’s WIERD. It started just when I got new glasses, but I’m not sure if that’s related. I just finished my first year of law school, during which I drank about 3 caffeinated Cokes a day and slept from 4 to 15 hours a night, depending upon which day of the week it was. The vitamin deficiency thing is interesting, since I have 2 other problems that can come from vitamin B6 deficiency, so maybe this has something to do with it too. Just googling wierd health problems at 1 am . . .

Actually, this is a VERY old post, and the thing has grown way out of control since then. This is not even the central eyelid-twitching post–that post is here, and around five thousand people visit it each and every month, most from Google. Only the main page of the blog gets more hits than that page. There are nearly 500 comments for that single post.

This page is not far behind–800 to 900 people a month come to this page as well.

Just think of this as Eyelid Twitcher’s Central.

Yep! I discovered that other post after I posted on this one. Hilarious!

Twitchers unite! I was so worried because I’ve twitched for about 2 weeks now. We have had 2 deaths in our family in the past 6 months-plus I started and quit a dead-end job and moved to the country. I first noticed the twitch the day after I put my faithful dog Molly to sleep after 14 wonderful years with her. Twitching started the very next day. However……this site has lightened me up and I am regaining my cynical sense of humor. Which can be more annoying to most than these perpetual eye twitches! Come on, let’s all get happy!!!!

HEYY PPL! ma upper left eye only started twitching 2day n man did it annoy me!!! how can u lot put up with the annoying thing 4 like….35 years?!?!?!?! i never knew it was so many ppl had the twitching thing aswell! nice to know i aint the only 1 like i thought!!! take care ppl!! xx

Here for the eye twitching.
I just got my car and am still learning to drive(2 weeks ago i got my license) and now I’ve started school again and I have to use the highway. So I;ve got full time school
and work!
But i think i have it all, stress, computers, high blood pressure, caffeine and lack of physical activity.
I’ve watched too much ER so I feared I had a tumor or a disease!

I am an IT contractor who works all day on the computer and have been for the last 15 years. I wear spectacles and drink about 4 cups of coffee a day. I have only had the twitching since the birth of my son 5 months ago. Therefore I think it could be as a result of insufficient sleep.

It would be useful if everyone describes what they do for a job, their general fitness, diet, stress, how many cups of coffee they drink, whether you wear spectacles etc.

I am currently in a relaxing job so I don’t think its that although I am married :-).

Peter

My right upper eyelid has been twitching for the past three weeks…everytime I sneeze, everytime I yawn, and at random times throughout the day. People who know me would consider me a high-stress individual, although the only thing that really seems to be really stressing me out right now is this eye twitching, oh and dealing with a break-up, school, and job promotion. I have not been consistently sleeping as well as well as what I am used to. I am on the verge of going to my doctor. I am trying a couple of at home remedies first. Suggestions that I have been given so far are placing a warm towel on the eye for about 5-10 minutes (I have done this the past two nights in a row and it has not helped yet, I have also been told to take a multi-vitamin which I have not tried as of yet. It is nice to know I am not alone…I being a long time contact lens wearer have been concerned about Corneal issues or something more serious. I guess only time will tell…

Good Luck to everyone with Twitching issues..may we all find relief from it and soon!

My right lower eyelid is twitching as I write this. It’s been happening for a few days now. It has happened before and I have always attributed it to lack of sleep. I definitly need more rest.

Stress? Whats there to be stressed about?

War in Iraq? Katrina? Terror threats? Gas prices? This country turning into a theocracy? My kids?

There’s nothing to be stressed about

This is obviously just for the moderator. You ask for my email address and then your spam filter doesn’t let it through. What is wrong exactly with having email through com cast??? Why does your spam filter consider my email as part of the message body?

PS Nice Blog,

Cheers.

Your email address is not required. You can leave that blank. But if your email address contains a text string that corresponds to a spam-related address, the filters will block it.

Sorry that it is not noted at present that an email address is not required (none of the fields are required, even the name); I had added that before, but upon the upgrade to Movable Type 3.17, that part was wiped and I neglected to replace it. I’ll try to add it in soon.

Wow I had no clue that this happened to other people. I told my sister that my eye was twitching and she said that she heard it was caused by tumors on the brain. Well, my brain is fine, but the eye twitching is still there. My eye started twitching in the middle of this June while working at the beloved daycare. NO stress there. Anyways, while outside one day playing in the water I watched a flying bug fly right up my nose. Every since then my eye has twitched, I thought that was the reason why it was twitching, but it has been two months since then and I am sure that the bug if still in my nose would already be gone! Anyways the twitching eye does give me something to do while I am bored. Whenever I am bored I watch it in the mirror, it is fun to watch my eye twitch. I am going to try the eye lubricant my eyes do burn, or maybe I need to change my contacts. Who knows I am just glad that there are others out there like me!

Eye twitchers – my left eye twitches when two different people are trying to get a hold of me or they are thinking about me, its a certain twitch for each one, and my right eye twitches when another person is thinking of me or wants to talk to me. I always know when it starts twitching that either they will call me or they just read an email from me. It stops twitching when I communicate with them. All are close friends of mine. I have confirmed this many times as I will be somewhere, my eyelid twitches, I look at my watch and shortly after I get a call or I have an email at that time or I call them and they say I was just thinking of you. So I’ve learned to work with the twitches instead of trying to make them go away. I do know a lot about nutrition and being an athlete it certainly could be vitamin related, but I found my twitches are different than a vitamin deficiency. And also what I’ve read about other eye twitchers I found if you go in agreement of something of why the eye twitches then that’s what may cause it. Happy twitches!

Not enough sleep, too much coffee and maybe some stress for me. Good to know I’m not the only twitcher out there as my family thinks I am making it up.

Cheers…

Hey fellow twitchers,
I have to thank you all for making me laugh like crazy. I, too, have a bad left eyelid twitch, only its been constant for the last 6 months! Driving me nuts. It gets worse with no sleep and but nothing seems to make it better and trust me, I tried sleeping for 11 hours. No such luck.
I do notice that people don’t notice it as much as I do. So far its only freaking me out, not people who might see it.
Someday maybe I might end up going to a doctor.

Awwwwww, I found me some fellow eye twitchers! It was hilarious to find out that I’m not the only freak out there with a twitchy eye!
I was seriously contemplating going to the doctor today about my…..uhhh….problem, but after reading everyone else’s twitching stories on here, I’m not too worried. I think I’ll go to the store and find me some supplements (Vitamin B, Potassium, and Magnesium) and see if they help at all. Or maybe I should just quit school, quit work, and move to South Korea to be with my husband. Maybe it is just stress and lack of sleep. I’m only 22 and I feel like I’m falling apart!
Keep twitching!

About 3 months ago, I started neurofeedback to balance my brainwaves (out of whack), and the practitioner “over” stimulated my left eye; leaving me with this horrible twitch. Never had one before. Then a crease started appearing down from my eye to my chin!!

So I found a neurological chiropractor who owns a Photonic device (light waves); have had 2 visits. This is a non-invasive procedure. This morning my crease was gone, and my eyetwitch is improving.

He said he’s just relaxing the muscles around the eye until the twitch stops.

If you want to find these guys, google photonic & a list will appear.

I truly thought I was going to go crazy with it; now I “know” this guy will remedy it, as it is about overstimulation from “whatever”.

Good luck!!…………carole

my eye’s been twitcing too! Some people say its stress and fatigue and lack of sleep and all that. Some people say its superstition.

Left eye twitch – BAD OMEN
Right eye twitch – Good OMEN

or vice versa ?

can any body elaborate further on this superstition thing?

I am a chronic eye twitcher and just remembered how I got rid of these horrible eye twitches, now for the second time.

I prayed to Jesus and exercised my faith (kinda scrawny but it’s getting better) and used some olive oil and prayed again.

I believe the Lord can heal, and He did. Felt a soreness, like the muscle was tired of twitching.

I have had no major twitching today and once, again, it has been lifted.

Don’t know why I try anything else.

all my life i was told that if your left eye twitches,something would upset you and if it’s your right eye something is going to make you happy….i have lived this & find it to be true…(like if your right palm itches you will get some money…unknown money of course…little or big..& again for me..this is always the case)NOW back to the eye thing..the reason that im even here on this site is because for the last 2 months or longer my left eye has been going crazy,way more than it normally do & needless to say…my luck (if you want to call it that)has been very,very bad… to where im scared if it don’t stop soon im going to start loosing everything..let me give you my last few months starting on MAY 9th 2005..i started a new job..by the end of the month I had made over 8 thousand dollars & was salesperson of the month…in June I made over 11 k & again was salesperson of the month…& so on… but in late October…my eye started jumping & i knew something was going to upset me (it has happen before & what ever it was i got over & moved on)…but not this time..this time i lost my job…the month of November i worked for 3 different companies only making for the month less than $500.00( mine you my eye continues to twitch)the first week of Dec I got my 4th job and as of today 12/30 my eye twitches & my luck(if you will)has gottin worst..I told you all my story because i didnt realize how many other people out there have the “eye twitch” so to answer the “THE BAD OMEN ” question …this my answer….peace

Found it extremely funny how you’re getting all these unwanted hits for twitching eyelids. Maybe you should try altering the first few lines of what appears in the Google search to the tune of “I don’t know anything about eyelid twitching, I’m just a Google casualty.”

OR you could add a few links on caffeine addiction, stress problems and dry eye to your blog and eventually aim to monetise your hits.

Yup, I did visit on an idle hope of ending my 2 month twitch (talking about it makes it twitch more persistently — maybe that’s a twitch in itself) but just ended up reading your cutely lame module on eye twitches and liking your style and wit. There are few in blogland that can write proper English.

Dare I hope you’re also young, good looking and rich like me?

Hello fellow twitchers!

My left eye has recently started to twitch, i think it is down to the eye lashes touching which is causing it to twitch when they touch! I did a search on google and found out that there is a whole world of twitching going on.

I’m planing to cut my eye lashes around the bottom left corner of my eye to see if that will help. I think i’m going mad!