Should I worry about my twitchy eye?

It’s most likely due to tiredness, stress or too much screen use – but it can indicate a more serious condition

How bad is a twitching eyelid? That depends on who you listen to. In epic Sanskrit poem the Ramayana, a pulsating eye can be a good or bad omen depending on which eye it is and who it belongs to – while in some Trinidadian traditions, it might portend a visit from a friend or a loved one in trouble. More recently, it’s become common visual shorthand for an over-caffeinated – or extremely stressed – cartoon character.

But what if it happens to you? Well, the good news is, if it’s infrequent, you almost certainly don’t have anything to be concerned about. “There are several reasons why a twitch in the eye can happen,” says Dr Cornelius Rene, a consultant oculoplastic surgeon at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge. “But the commonest cause is something called benign essential blepharospasm, or BEB, which is an uncontrollable spasm of the eyelid, for which there is often no underlying cause. If it’s just one eyelid twitching, then that is usually what we call myokymia, which is a basically pretty benign condition that is usually transient and typically gets better on its own.”

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