The Risks of Sleeping with Your Contact Lenses

Several studies report nearly 80 percent of contact lens users have slept in their lenses at least once. While most don’t experience any eye complaints, this is a risky behavior that can lead to ocular irritation and potentially vision loss. In fact, doctors recommend that you don’t even take a short nap with contact lenses because you could face severe consequences. What Happens When You Sleep With Contacts In Your eye’s surface is extremely sensitive, so sleeping in your contact lenses causes prolonged contact between the eye and the contact lens. Poor contact lens hygiene can cause eye redness, eye pain, discharge excessive tearing sensitivity to light and worsening and blurred vision. Researchers further suggest that keeping in your lenses for too long could even affect the shape of your eyes.  Another issue is the lack of oxygen to your eyes while you’re sleeping. While the design of contact lenses has been improved over time to allow for better oxygenation, this hasn’t resulted in a reduction in infections, like a corneal ulcer which is an open sore on your cornea which is a medical emergency. In addition, contact lenses affect your tear film. The tear film removes debris and moisturizes...