What Are Warm Compresses for Eyes

While you may intuitively know what a hot compress is, by definition this involves a pad or piece of flannel or gauze that is dipped in hot water or saline.

How to Use a Warm Eye Compress to Treat Stye and Other Conditions

A warm compress is a longtime, traditional home remedy for many mild ailments. Compresses are also recommended by doctors and medical professionals for managing certain conditions.

Compresses involve a clean cloth soaked in warm water. The warm cloth is then applied and compressed on the skin, wound, or other site.

Bringing heat and moisture to certain conditions may help alleviate pain, inflammation, and other issues.

Warm compresses may help mild eye conditions, too. These include styes, itchiness, dryness, red eye, and infections.

Using a warm compress for the eye is simple.

Simply apply it straight to the eye while keeping your eye closed. You can apply it to both eyes at once if the cloth is large enough.

Hold it there for as long as it improves comfort and symptoms. Re-soak it in warm water and re-apply as often necessary, or when the compress gets cold.

Warm compresses have been a popular home remedy for many reasons. For the eye, they can improve circulation, soothe inflammation, and unclog swollen eyelids.

For this reason, they can be very helpful for the following eye conditions:

Styes

A warm compress is a common approach to treating styes. These may also be called hordeola (hordeolum singular) or chalazia (chalazion singular).

Styes occur when a localized part of the eyelid becomes swollen, either due to gland blockage or infection.

Warm compresses are a common approach for relief. They may soften and drain away any blockages.

Blepharitis

Besides styes, eyelids can become inflamed or swollen for other reasons. The swelling of the eyelids is referred to as blepharitis.

According to a 2012 review of multiple research studies , compresses have shown to be helpful in relieving blepharitis symptoms.

Swollen eyes

Though styes and blepharitis involve swollen eyelids, swollen eyes or eyelids may occur for other reasons. Warm compresses can help these symptoms, too.

Causes for swollen eye may include:

Rarer causes include Graves’ disease or eye cancer, which can also cause the condition.

With each these conditions, applying a warm compress may provide some relief of symptoms. It is not proven to cure any of these conditions.

Dry eyes

Warm compresses may even help with dry eyes. The heat from the compress helps glands that produce tears to work better.

Warm compresses are a common approach to dry eye-related conditions, including meibomian gland dysfunction. They can provide relief, but they cannot cure dry eye conditions.

Pink eye

Using a compress may also be helpful for a common type of eye inflammation, pink eye. Pink eye (also called conjunctivitis) is a swelling of the inner conjunctiva of the eye. It is typically caused by bacteria, virus, or allergy.

Warm compresses may help with pain, itchiness, discharge, and inflammation. It will not cure any infection.

Make sure to use antibiotics or other infection-fighting medicines if recommended by your eye doctor in addition to your warm compress if you have been diagnosed with an infection.

Black eye

Black eye (also called periorbital hematoma) is caused by trauma to the eye. It causes bruising and subcutaneous (under the skin) bleeding, pain, inflammation, and discoloration around the eye.

A warm compress may help with pain from a black eye. It is often recommended as a first-aid measure, specifically a few days after the major primary swelling has gone down.

What Are Warm Compresses for Eyes?

Maxine Lipner is a long-time health and medical writer with over 30 years of experience covering ophthalmology, oncology, and general health and wellness.

Published on December 02, 2021

Chris Vincent, MD, is a licensed physician, surgeon, and board-certified doctor of family medicine.

Table of Contents
Table of Contents

Warm compresses are a time-honored, go-to treatment for a number of eye-related issues. Warm compresses can be used for conditions varying from styes to dry eye and beyond. Here’s what you need to know to get the most from this helpful home remedy.

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Definition

While you may intuitively know what a hot compress is, by definition this involves a pad or piece of flannel or gauze that is dipped in hot water or saline.

For warm compresses on most parts of the body, the temperature of the water should range between 107 degrees and 115 degrees Fahrenheit. After wringing out, the compress is then placed against the body to promote pain relief, to drain an abscess, or for muscle relaxation.

Types of Warm Compresses

Warm compresses for eye problems are a way of strategically applying heat to the area. This can be either dry or wet heat. The two different types of compresses are:

Dry heat doesn’t involve any moisture on the skin. You can use a heating pad, or a hot-water bottle. With either method, it’s advisable to place a piece of cloth between the item and your skin.
Moist heat uses warm water. This usually involves first soaking a washcloth or towel in warm water and then squeezing out the excess before placing it over or near your eyes.

Conditions Treated

Warm eye compresses can be used for a number of maladies. These can include the following:

Dry eye from meibomian gland disease: In this condition, the tiny glands along the edges of the eyelids are unable to provide good quality oil needed for the tear film that protects the eye.
Styes or chalazion: These are two types of painful bumps on your eyelid or lash line.
Pink eye: Also called conjunctivitis, it is inflammation or infection of the membrane covering the white of your eye.

How Warm Compresses Work

Warming the eye with the compress can help to bring more circulation to the area. It can also help relieve muscle spasms and pain.

For those with dry eyes, the heat from the compress can improve oil gland function by helping to open the meibomian glands. The improvement in oil flow can in turn slow down tear evaporation and stabilize the tear film.

Process

Depending on what you need the warm eye compress for, the compress can be very straightforward to prepare. The process takes just a few minutes.

One tried-and-true method involves using a large bowl or water basin. With this method you should:

Fill the receptacle with warm water. Make sure that the water is warm but not hot enough to burn the delicate skin around the eye.
Place a clean towel or cloth into the warm water and allow the material to soak it up.
Lift the towel out of the bowl and wring it out until it no longer drips.
Fold the towel, and drape it over your eyes for up to 10 minutes.

Another possibility is to heat a couple of moist towels in the microwave. With this method do the following:

Run two towels under the faucet. Then, wring each of them out.
Fold one of the towels and place it in an open ziplock bag.
Put the open bag into the microwave on high for two minutes.
Using care not to burn yourself, take the bag from the microwave and zip it closed.
Take the other moist towel and wrap it around the hot bag.
Use the compress on your eyes for up to 10 minutes.

For conditions such as meibomian gland dysfunction that require keeping the warm compresses at a steady level of warmth for as long as possible, a technique known as the “bundle method” can be used. This technique also makes use of the microwave. Here’s how it works:

Take five or six microfiber towels and run them under water. Then wring out any excess.
Fold each of the towels into a long rectangular shape.
Stack one towel on top of the first and roll these into a tight cylinder. Then wrap a third towel around the first two. Continue doing this with each remaining towel.
Take this bundle and put it in a nonmetal container in the microwave and cover it. Heat the bundle for 1 minute and 50 seconds. Depending on the power of your microwave, you may want to adjust this time. The idea is to make it as warm as possible without causing discomfort.
With the lid sealed, give the towels one to two minutes to cool before using.
Peel the outermost towel off the bundle and seal the rest back in the container before placing this towel on your eyes.
After two minutes, remove the compress from your lids and replace it with the next heated towel from the bundle, while keeping the rest sealed in the container.
Continue this process until the last warm towel is used.

Who Can Use a Compress?

Use of warm compresses is a home remedy that is accessible to anyone. This is something that you can fairly easily do yourself at your own convenience. If you are unsure about the process or whether it should be used for your condition, discuss it with your healthcare professional.

Outcomes

How you fare with a warm eye compress depends on just what you are using this for and how severe your condition is at the outset. Some people may only need to use this a few times, while others may need to make this a daily regimen for a while.

Dry Eye

If you have dry eye from meibomian gland disease, the warm compress can help to open up the glands, which can in turn release more oil into the eye. This improves the tear film by slowing evaporation and stabilizing it.

It is recommended that warm compresses be applied daily. They can be used alone or in combination with other dry eye remedies, such as artificial tears, gels, or ointments. The compresses can also soothe the eyes and keep them healthy.

Styes or Chalazion

If you have a stye along your lash line, the idea of using these warm compresses is to allow it to rupture naturally to drain the pus. It’s important that this be allowed to happen on its own without your squeezing it.

Likewise, if you have a chalazion caused by a blocked oil gland on your lid, the warm compress can help unclog the gland by loosening any material blocking it, allowing it to drain.

It usually only takes a few days for styes or chalazion to begin to shrink. If after three or four weeks they persist, contact your doctor to prescribe other treatments.

Pink Eye

If you have pink eye, otherwise known as conjunctivitis, your healthcare provider may suggest that you use a warm compress three or four times a day, possibly along with other treatments, such as medication. This can help clear any discharge building up on the eyelids.

Keep in mind that you should use separate compresses for each of your eyes to lower the risk of spreading the infection from one to the other.

Warnings

Avoid using commercial warm compresses. Not only are these heavy on the eyes but, potentially, they can leach chemicals into your eyes.

Also, while you want the compress to be warm, never put anything that feels too hot near your eye. If this feels at all painful, remove the mask immediately. The last thing you want to do is to injure the ocular surface.

Summary

A warm eye compress is a home remedy that can help for conditions such as styes, dry eye, and pink eye. Such warm compresses can bring more circulation to the area and help to soothe pain.

Making a warm compress is something that anyone can do. There are different approaches to try, ranging from simply dipping a cloth in a bowl of warm water to rolling up a bundle and heating it in the microwave.

A Word From Verywell

A warm compress is something you can have at the ready if you have an occasional issue with your eyes. This can provide relief in many instances and may be just what you need. But if you find you aren’t improving as you should, be sure to promptly contact your healthcare provider for assistance.

Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

Medical Dictionary. Hot compress.
Optometry Times. Using warm compresses to treat meibomian gland disease.
University of Michigan Health. Warm compresses for eye problems. Updated August 31, 2020.
Johns Hopkins Medicine. Ice packs vs warm compresses for pain.
Optometrists Network. Can warm compresses help dry eyes?
NYU Langone Health. Home treatment for stye.
New York University Langone Health. Home treatments for conjunctivitis.

By Maxine Lipner
Maxine Lipner is a long-time health and medical writer with over 30 years of experience covering ophthalmology, oncology, and general health and wellness.