The Checkup: This Is Why You Get Eye Boogers

And more healthy reads to open your eyes this morning.

• You know when you wake up with eye boogers? Or worse, you wake up next to someone else with gnarly eye boogers? Well, turns out that gunk is a combo of mucus, dust, lint, bacteria and dead skin cells, and the reason you have eye boogers in the morning and is because you’re not flushing your eyes out at night by blinking. Not that any of this information makes them any less gross. [Refinery29]

• A big batch of federal funding just came through for 11 multimodal projects across the region, and protected bike lanes in Philly are on the list of projects. Insert all the praise-hands emojis here. [PlanPhilly]

• If, come Christmas, you always end up shopping for yourself, take note: A new study shows spending money on others could boost your health. [Today]

• Go ahead, drink your five cups of coffee a day, says a Harvard nutritionist. [Science of Us]

• Whoa: Here’s much money America would save if the country cut back on meat. (You can start here.) [The Atlantic]

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