Falling asleep in contact lenses

[jelly79]

Every night!

For years! I can't really see without them so exes up falling asleep in them every night. Waking up now with sticky eyes.

I should stop this shouldn't I?

*end up

Why don't you just get day & night monthlies?

Please tell me you're not serious.

Yes. You will end up with problems.
Why not take them out earlier in the evening? If you can't see without them you obviously need glasses as well.

Some you can sleep in but if yours aren't meant for it you need to take them out as I was always told they can cause damage otherwise. Please be careful when it comes to your eyes

Why would you risk the health of your eyes like that? Isn't it routine to take them out and put your glasses on when you brush your teeth BEFORE you even get into bed??

@HauntedPencil

Why don't you just get day & night monthlies?

Or this.

I have done it by accident a few times and freaked out, and I was going to say that is not ideal but don’t worry too much, but every night cannot be good for you.

arghhhh no don't do that! My eyes are shrivelling up just thinking about it

I didn't do that and I've still got meibomian gland dysfunction/dry eye syndrome from years of wearing contact lenses. Don't be an idiot, just stop doing it.

Incredibly foolish

You can get an infection that will cause corneal scarring so severe you would be visually impaired and/or need corneal transplants.

It is a massive massive risk

There are day/night lenses although they fell out of favour a bit having been huge in US and are now more advised for actual sight correction in puberty than due to laziness!

Please get some glasses so you can get into the habit of removing in the evening and having a couple of hours of CL free time before bed.

Please don’t keep risking your precious sight this way.

fwiw I wear gas permeables which I understand are quite rare these days but I've been told by several opticians they are a healthier option

Just get extended wear lenses, I change mine once every 30 days on average and sleep in them every night.

If you wear them a lot you are better off getting gas permeable ones (the rigid ones) because they allow more oxygen to get to your eyes. What stops you taking them out? I am the laziest person ever so I sometimes take my gas permeable lenses out in bed and clean them in the morning. One case of conjunctivitis and you soon learn, it is incredibly painful.

Ah noooo stop that lol. I did this twice for one night and both times ended up with an ulcer on the eyeball . Hours in A and E so painful, took a scraping to test it- so unpleasant and two lots of drops for a week and no lenses for 2 weeks I have three scars on my eyes that I have to explain when its a different optometrist. So not worth it

Ok here is the thing.

Your cornea doesn’t have a blood supply. It draws its oxygen from the air. Wearing any kind of contact lens stops the oxygen getting through. As the name suggests gas permeable lenses let through the most. The day and night lenses were just as good but I don’t think they are recommenced any more.
When you sleep your cornea gets less oxygen than when you are awake. If you sleep for a long time, ie overnight, with lenses in you are cutting off the oxygen supply entirely.
If you do this often enough blood vessels will grow into your cornea effecting your vision for life.
In very serious cases the cornea can come away.

This is of course the worst case scenario and you would need to do it for a long time for this to happen.

The other way of looking at it is that is your eyes, your fucking eyes. Do you want to really take chances and fuck about with your vision?
Stop being so stupid.

Lord . I've had contacts for nearly 20 years and never once fallen asleep in them.
Take them out after your evening meal.

My optician gave me a stern talking to when I confessed to wearing my contact lenses for at least 12 hours a day 7 days a week!

As an optometrist your post made me squirm! Please stop falling asleep in your lenses. Take them out when you get in and put on your glasses. You should also be having at least one day off your lenses completely and wearing glasses, regardless of how good the contact lenses you wear are. Your eyes are precious, please stop mistreating them.

Please stop or get the right lenses. I'm severely visually impaired in one eye trust me you do not want to get a serious infection and lose sight in one or both eyes!

I have day and night ones as a safeguard as I do fall asleep in them sometimes (travelling, snooze on sofa etc), I wouldn't wear them continually but it's a good idea if you are prone to snoozing. I rarely go a whole day without wearing them at all but do try and have a few hours in glasses at the weekend, till I have to leave the house. Your eyes need a break.

Also if I slept in them I'd be tempted to shower in them and that's a no.

You really should have a pair of prescription glasses as well as lenses.

Please stop - it can be really dangerous. I used to do this (I even had lenses that were designed for 24 hour wear and supposedly were fine to sleep in in the 80s) and I ended up temporarily blind and had to stop wearing lenses altogether.

I think today's lenses are more oxygen permeable but what happened to me was very frightening.

I woke one morning and could see nothing at all except white opaque, like those frosted window films or an extremely foggy day. I took the lenses out and rang my doctor in a panic as I was literally blind and could see nothing except thick white fog.

A saw my optician and she said my eyes had been starved of oxygen and it might be permanent. I was terrified. Then over the next few days - 2 weeks the fog gradually lifted and I could see again. My optician said there was permanent changes to the tiny blood vessels in my eyes where they had grown longer in an effort to reach out for oxygen.

Long story short I went back to glasses and didn't wear lenses for many years. Now I wear them just occasionally.

Very dangerous.