What is "sleep", the hard stuff in your eyes that we have when we wake up?

BRY2K

Rheum is a medical term for the natural watery discharge from the eyes, commonly known as "eye potatoes", "sleep sugar," "sleepies", "eye cheese", "eye crusties", or "eye boogers"(or some derivative thereof), which forms a crust on the eyelids during sleep. It is formed by a combination of mucus (consisting of mucin discharged from the cornea or conjunctiva), tears, leaked blood cells, dead skin cells from the eyelids, and dust. In folklore it is thought to be the work of the Sandman the night before. Normally, blinking causes this substance to be washed away with tears. The absence of this function during sleep, however, results in a small amount of dry rheum forming in the corners of the eyes even among healthy individuals, especially children. Still, the formation of a large amount of crust or the presence of pus within it may indicate dry eye or other more serious eye infections including conjunctivitis and corneitis. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rheum Jul 11 08, 6:54 AM

zbeckabee

Here are some translations for the term Rheum: Dansk (Danish) n. - slim, snue Nederlands (Dutch) verkoudheid, neus-/ oogslijm Français (French) n. - chassie, écoulement nasal aqueux Deutsch (German) n. - Schnupfen, Schleim, Tränen Italiano (Italian) catarro Português (Portuguese) n. - reuma (f) (Med.), catarro (m) Español (Spanish) n. - legaña, mucosidades Svenska (Swedish) n. - slem, katarr http://www.answers.com/topic/rheum Jul 11 08, 1:18 PM