Can air conditioning cause dry eyes?
Air conditioning can worsen dry eyes by lowering humidity and moving air across the surface of the eye, increasing evaporation. It aggravates an existing tendency more often than it creates one from nothing.
- Subject
- Eye conditions
- Topic
- Dry eye
- Kind of question
- Can I…
- Last reviewed
- 22 September 2026
In more detail
This is a practical consideration in the UAE, where indoor air is conditioned for much of the year. Seating that keeps you out of a direct draught makes a measurable difference for some people.
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Where this answer sits
It is one of 483 answers in the vision and eye health knowledge base, filed under Eye conditions & diseases in Dry eye . The subject page carries the answers either side of it, and the hub is searchable.
Subjects this question touches
The pages that answer the subject behind the question, rather than the question itself.
- Condition Dry eye
This information is for educational purposes and does not replace an examination by a qualified eye-care professional.
General answers cannot tell you what is happening in your own eyes. Only an examination by a qualified ophthalmologist can do that.
Sources & further reading
We prefer primary sources. Where a claim comes from a manufacturer, a single study or a regulator, it is labelled as such below.
- EyeSmart: eye health information for the public
Patient-facing material from the largest ophthalmology professional body, covering conditions, tests and treatments outside refractive surgery.
Used for Cross-checking patient-facing explanations of non-refractive eye conditions; Describing what tests such as dilation and OCT involve.
Link checked 23 September 2026