So why do I always look tired?

“Everyone tells me I look tired, even though I feel perfectly fine. Should I see a doctor?” Many of us have said or heard this sentence time and again, and it is one of the most common reasons people book a medical appointment. And it is a reality: many patients who feel very well and lead perfectly normal lives have a tired look. It is a kind of optical illusion linked to specific features and/or changes that, in the vast majority of cases, occur in the eye or the area around it.

In any case, the appearance of a face, and more specifically of tired-looking eyes, does not depend on a single factor: several elements help explain it. First, there is genetics. Some people have, from a very young age, dark circles, under-eye bags, a low position of the outer part of the eyebrows, or even bone prominences such that they naturally look tired, regardless of their health or age.

But of course, the main cause of a tired look is the ageing process, which affects us all, but unequally, depending on our lifestyle and habits as well as our genetics, and even our ethnic origin: people of Asian, African or Middle Eastern origin age more slowly than so-called Caucasian people.

By Charaf Abdessemed

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