Sunken Eyes

Hollows are not always a sign of aging. Some people are born with deep-set eyes or with very little fat directly beneath them, so the tear trough shows from their twenties onward. Family resemblance is often the giveaway: if a parent has the same groove, the structure was likely inherited rather than acquired, and it tends to deepen earlier.

The upper cheek rests on deep pads of fat that act as internal cushions, propping up the under-eye from below. With age these pads lose volume and drift downward, the way a pillow flattens with use. As the cushion deflates, the border between lid and cheek, once a smooth curve, becomes a visible step that catches shadow.

Bone is living tissue that the body continually remodels, breaking down old bone and laying down new. From midlife onward, removal gradually outpaces renewal around the eye socket, and its rim slowly widens and recedes. The soft tissue above loses part of its foundation, so the hollow deepens from beneath, independently of anything happening in the skin.

Collagen, the skin's structural protein, declines from the mid-twenties at roughly 1% per year, and hyaluronic acid, the molecule that holds water in the skin, begins fading in the twenties and drops significantly after 40. Under the eye, where skin is among the thinnest on the body, this double loss makes the area thinner and more transparent, so the hollow shows more clearly.

Short nights and low fluid intake do not create a hollow, but they deepen one temporarily. Dehydration draws water out of the skin and the tissue under the eye, so the dip sits lower; fatigue dulls skin tone and slows circulation, sharpening the contrast around it. If your hollows vary from day to day, this layer is usually why.