What's the grown-up word for sleepy-dust?

[FlamedToACrisp]

I've suddenly realised I'm 58 and still using baby-talk to refer to the crusty bits in your eyes when you wake up. All I can find by Googling is 'rheum' - but I've never, ever heard anyone refer to it as that!

What do you call it?

It's just crusted tears/watery snot, isn't it? Eye bogeys. Yum.

Yeah... I don't think 'watery snot' is quite the phrase I'm looking for, thanks!

Sleep here too

Sleepy sand!

Eye snot

Sleep. Think it's a NE thing to call it sleepy dust

I've always called it sleep. Even as a small child.

Sleep here too. Which is really weird when you think about it isn't it? It is in the dictionary though...

1. 'Sleep' a gummy secretion found in the corners of the eyes after sleep.

"she sat up, rubbing the sleep from her eyes"

We call it bleers

Eye boogers is the correct medical term I believe.

It is rheum, or dried rheum, as reum is the liquid. Rheumy eyes are watery eyes. Blepharitis is dry eye, which can cause watery eyes as the eye tries to wash out the irritation.

Rheum is also the botanical name for the rhubarb family. No idea if there's an etymological connection between rheum for rhubarb and rheum for sleep dust. We called it sleep dust where I grew up by the south coast.

DS misheard me when he was 2 and since then he's told me "I've got crumpets in my eyes". It's stuck in our house and now there's no convincing them otherwise.

Sleep, for the normal stuff. Gunk or crud, for conjunctivitis.

Sleepy dust is a new phrase to me , just known it as sleep before. Think it is rather a good one !

Sleepy dust up until about the age of 10, then eye goop after that

Eye bogeys or sleepy dust.

But more often just "you've got sleep in your eye"

Sleepy dust for me is something that makes the babies go to sleep. Like a lullaby or a toy that comes with sleepy dust.

Goo in the eye is just sleep. You’ve got some sleep in your eye.

YY Chankly

Eye jam

Another vote for just "sleep"

I figured it out - “Rheum” apparently

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rheum

Sorry, posted too soon

I found some random NHS guidance, they tend to refer to it as crust or discharge

MAll I can find by Googling is 'rheum'

That sounds like something Inspector Clouseau says!

I believe the correct term for it is "gound", according to the OED.

I like this explanation also "Rheum is made up of mucus, skin cells, oils and dust. The rheum that comes from the eyes and forms eye boogers is called gound, which you may know as eye sand, eye gunk, sleep dust, sleep sand, sleep in your eyes, or eye shnooters. When you're awake, gound doesn't cause any problems."