Why You Shouldn’t Sleep With Contact Lenses in Your Eyes

If you wear contact lenses, you’ll no doubt have experienced a time when you fell asleep on the sofa—maybe to the lulling background sounds of a favorite movie—only to wake up to blurry, dry eyes. You forgot to remove your contact lenses before sleeping, or maybe you didn’t know you’d actually fall asleep. But when you go to remove the lenses, they’re so “glued” to your eyes that you have to apply eye drops before you can even extract the lenses.

Ortho-K Lenses: The Exception to the Rule

There is an exception to the rule, however (isn’t there always?). Some lenses are actually meant to be worn overnight so that they can do their work. The exception is ortho-K lenses. Ortho-K lenses are a specialized type of rigid gas-permeable contact lens designed to be worn overnight and made of oxygen permeable material. Unlike regular soft contact lenses, Ortho-K lenses gently reshape the cornea while you sleep, temporarily correcting vision so that you don’t need glasses or daytime contact lenses. So if your optometrist in Coldwater, MS has prescribed these lenses, feel free to slumber away in them.

Increased Risk of Eye Infections

Sleeping in contact lenses creates an environment where bacteria and other harmful microorganisms can thrive. The cornea, which requires oxygen to stay healthy, is limited as to how much oxygen it gets when it’s covered by a contact lens, and even less when the eyes are closed during sleep.

Corneal Hypoxia and Irritation

That same reduction in oxygen can lead to corneal hypoxia, where the cells of the cornea become deprived of oxygen. This can cause swelling, redness, blurred vision and discomfort. That’s why you have blurriness when you wake up. Over time, chronic oxygen deprivation can lead to more severe complications, such as corneal ulcers or abnormal blood vessel growth in the eye.

You aren’t meant to be sleeping with your contact lenses on. Doing this accidentally every now and again is no cause for worry. But doing it on a regular basis can cause some pretty serious issues. Contact Coldwater Vision Center for more information about contact lenses in Coldwater, MS.