Are you setting yourself up for a successful night’s sleep with thyroid eye disease? Thyroid eye disease (TED)—an autoimmune condition where the immune system attacks tissues behind the eyes, causing inflammation and enlargement—can make getting a good night’s sleep challenging. Symptoms like dry eyes, swelling, and discomfort can be real barriers to getting the rest you need to feel your best. The good news is, making small changes to nighttime habits can help reduce irritation and improve sleep quality. This quiz reviews practical sleep solutions for people living with TED, including eye care techniques and lifestyle adjustments that can make nights more comfortable. Read each question carefully and choose the best answer based on the information you’ve learned. Many people living with thyroid eye disease feel an overriding sense of relief when they finally get an answer to their health concerns, but Genik says she felt defeated and devastated. “I was really scared that it was going to get worse,” she says. “I felt like a freak and that everyone could notice it the second they looked at me. I didn’t want to be seen.” She began to isolate herself, spending a lot of time googling her condition and crying with every new fact she learned about this lifelong condition. “It felt like my whole identity was being unraveled,” she admits, “My face didn’t feel like mine anymore, and it was terrifying not knowing how far it would progress or how permanent it would be.” Like many people with thyroid eye disease (TED), 36-year-old Elena Genik was diagnosed with Graves’ disease—an autoimmune condition where the immune system produces antibodies that cause the thyroid to produce too much thyroid hormone—first. When someone has TED, the muscles and tissues behind their eyes become inflamed and swollen, causing their eyes to bulge out. “Looking back, the eye symptoms actually crept in before I even knew what was happening,” says Genik, who initially thought the constant watering, redness, and itching of her eyes was due to allergies. “One day, I was sitting at dinner with my family and my boyfriend and my eye was itching a lot the whole time.” When her boyfriend asked if she was OK and encouraged her to look in the mirror, Genik saw that the inner corner of her left eye was extremely puffy and swollen: But even with all of her symptoms, her diagnosis didn’t come quickly. “It took a few months to get an answer,” she says. “I saw a neuro-ophthalmologist a doctor who specializes in vision problems caused by neurological conditions] and got an MRI before my diagnosis of TED was confirmed. After that, my care was managed by a specialist eye doctor called an oculoplastic surgeon
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