IF you're feeling tired, it's likely one of the first things you will do is reach up to rub your eyes.

You might also be tempted to rub them if you've got something such as shampoo or dust in there.

But one doctor has now revealed why you should never do this.

Posting to TikTok, Dr Brian Boxer Wachler showed a clip of an MRI scan of when someone is rubbing their eyes.

The eye balls can be seen wriggling around and being pushed down further into the socket.

When the person pushes their eyes to rub them, the eye balls look as though they are being squashed down.

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"Please don’t rub your eyes especially if you have keratoconus which can make it worse," Dr Boxer Wachler, who practises at the Boxer Wachler Vision Institute in Beverly Hills, US said.

Keratoconus is a non-inflammatory eye condition in which the normally round dome-shaped clear window of the eye, called the cornea, thins and causes a cone-like bulge to develop, experts at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London state.

This impairs the ability of the eye to focus properly and can cause poor vision.

Depending on ethnicity, it affects up to one in 450 people and it's more common in non-caucasians.

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It's important to not rub your eyes as the more you do, the more your corneal surface is affected, this then breaks down the fibre.

If you have keratoconus, your cornea is already weak, which is why Dr Boxer Wachler said eye rubbing is even more dangerous for people with the condition.

While rubbing your eyes can weaken your cornea, experts at the Atlantic Eye Institute said it can also increase your risk of eye infections.

This is because when you touch your eyes, you could be touching them with unclean hands, unknowingly transfering bugs to them.

"A scratched or thin membrane makes the eye more prone to infections, including fungal infection. While the eye has an amazing series of protective measures in place – eyebrows, lower and upper eyelashes, and a moist flushing system activated every time you blink – it is not immune to infections. 

"If your eyes are inflamed and scratched, or if the “wrong” bacteria transfer from your hands to your eyes, there’s a higher risk of eye infection," guidance states.

The experts added that some of the most common bacterial infections that occur from hand-to-eye contamination include:

• staphylococcus
• streptococcus
• salmonella
• E. coli.

To prevent this they said you should wash your hands on a regular basis, making a conscious effort to clean them with soapy water and then dry them before touching your eyes.

Rubbing your eyes can also exacerbate dark circles, as the tissue around the eyes is thinner than elsewhere on the body.

"The delicate skin has equally delicate blood vessels right underneath.

"When you rub your eyes, those tiny capillaries and veins break very easily, and this causes bruising that makes dark eye circles even worse," the Atlantic Eye Institute experts said.

Not only this, but it can also worsen glaucoma, which is a leading cause of vision loss.

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It can emerge at any age and affects the optic nerve at the back of the eye.

The act of rubbing your eyes puts pressure on the inner, fluid-filled chamber, which can cause severe fluctuations in pressure inside the eye, making the condition worse, the experts added.

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