His hands are tameh. Welcome to the daily halacha (Jewish law). The Gemara tells us in a few places, and it is brought down in Shulchan Aruch, Siman Dalet, that a person's hands are impure in the morning. This is because when a person goes to sleep, part of their neshama, part of the soul, goes to shamayim (heaven). In the morning, when they wake up, Hashem puts the neshama back in their body and gives them life again. That's why the Gemara says that when a person goes to sleep, it's considered one-sixtieth of death, meaning it's a little bit of a mitah (death), because part of the neshama leaves the body.
When a person comes back down in the morning, they pass by some ruach tmeot, some spirits that are impure, and those can come with them, with their soul inside their body in the morning. So a person has to wash their hands with water in the order that the Chachamim (sages) said, in order to take out the tum'ah, to take out the impure spirits. Before a person washes their hands in the morning when they wake up, their hands are tameh. So tameh, so impure, that the Gemara says, and Shulchan Aruch brings it down, a person shouldn't touch their nose, eyes, or ears with their fingers. A person should be very careful: as soon as you open your eyes, say Modeh Ani and wash your hands right away. Try to have the netilat yadayim (wash your hands) cup with water next to you in bed. Obviously, you covered the cup the whole night, because if the cup was out in the open, filled with water without a covering on it, then the water also becomes tameh if it was out the whole night, so you can't use it in the morning. But the first thing you should do is wash your hands. You're not allowed to touch any body parts or your face until you wash your hands, because then the tum'ah, the impurity, can transfer to that specific evar, to that specific limb.
Reb Chaim Palachi and his son, Reb Yitzchak Palachi, bring down that some people are lenient about maybe rubbing their faces in the morning with their palm, not with their fingers, with their palm. But even that, a lot of rabbis are machmir and they said it's worth it to be careful. If you really have to rub your eyes in the morning, use a cloth. Don't do it directly with your fingers, because then your hands are tameh and the tum'ah can be transferred.