{"id":11612,"date":"2021-05-18T13:42:55","date_gmt":"2021-05-18T13:42:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.optometrists.org\/?page_id=11612"},"modified":"2021-07-27T13:06:31","modified_gmt":"2021-07-27T13:06:31","slug":"is-sleeping-in-contact-lenses-dangerous","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.optometrists.org\/general-practice-optometry\/optical\/guide-to-contact-lenses\/common-contact-lens-problems\/is-sleeping-in-contact-lenses-dangerous\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Sleeping in Contact Lenses Dangerous?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>About one-third of contact lens wearers occasionally sleep with their lenses.<\/b><\/h2>\n<p>It\u2019s easy to fall asleep in your contact lenses; one minute you\u2019re reading a book or watching TV, and the next you\u2019re fast asleep.<\/p>\n<p>In some cases, a person can wake up with their lenses on and just blink any discomfort away.<\/p>\n<p><b>Sleeping with contact lenses make you up to 8 times more likely to experience a contact lens-related eye infection, such as damage to your cornea.<\/b><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.optometrists.org\/practice-search\/\"><b>Contact an eye doctor near you<\/b><\/a> to learn more about contact lens safety.<\/p>\n<p><strong>SEE RELATED:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.optometrists.org\/general-practice-optometry\/optical\/guide-to-contact-lenses\/common-contact-lens-problems\/contact-lenses-what-can-go-wrong\/\">Contact Lenses: What Can Go Wrong?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\t<div class=\"practice-search-widget\">\n\t\t<h3>Find an eye doctor near you<\/h3>\n\t\t\n\t<form class=\"practice-search-form practice-search-form-widget\" action=\"https:\/\/www.optometrists.org\/practice-search\/results\/\" method=\"get\">\n\n\t\t<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"distance\" value=\"100\" class=\"practice-search-distance\">\n\t\t<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"page\" class=\"practice-search-page\">\n\t\t<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"address_latitude\"><input type=\"hidden\" name=\"address_longitude\">\n\n\t\t<input type=\"text\" name=\"address\" class=\"practice-search-address\" placeholder=\"City, Surburb or Address\" value=\"\">\n\n\t\t\n\t\t\t<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"distance\" value=\"100\" class=\"practice-search-distance\">\n\n\t\t\n\n\t\t<button type=\"submit\" class=\"practice-search-button\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<svg width=\"19\" height=\"19\" viewBox=\"0 0 19 19\" fill=\"none\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\"><path fill-rule=\"evenodd\" clip-rule=\"evenodd\" d=\"M10.6796 0.130005C9.15708 0.130059 7.66615 0.5646 6.38198 1.38258C5.09781 2.20057 4.07373 3.36803 3.43004 4.74783C2.78634 6.12763 2.54976 7.66246 2.74808 9.17205C2.9464 10.6816 3.57139 12.1033 4.54964 13.27L0.729639 17.08C0.6364 17.1732 0.562439 17.2839 0.511979 17.4058C0.461519 17.5276 0.435547 17.6581 0.435547 17.79C0.435547 17.9219 0.461519 18.0524 0.511979 18.1743C0.562439 18.2961 0.6364 18.4068 0.729639 18.5C0.917942 18.6883 1.17334 18.7941 1.43964 18.7941C1.5715 18.7941 1.70207 18.7681 1.82389 18.7177C1.94571 18.6672 2.0564 18.5932 2.14964 18.5L5.99964 14.62C7.35406 15.6038 8.98566 16.1324 10.6596 16.13C12.7814 16.13 14.8162 15.2871 16.3165 13.7869C17.8168 12.2866 18.6596 10.2517 18.6596 8.13C18.6596 6.00827 17.8168 3.97344 16.3165 2.47315C14.8162 0.97286 12.7814 0.130005 10.6596 0.130005H10.6796ZM10.6796 14.13C9.49295 14.13 8.33291 13.7781 7.34622 13.1188C6.35952 12.4595 5.59049 11.5225 5.13636 10.4261C4.68224 9.32975 4.56342 8.12335 4.79493 6.95946C5.02644 5.79558 5.59788 4.72648 6.437 3.88736C7.27611 3.04825 8.34521 2.4768 9.5091 2.24529C10.673 2.01378 11.8794 2.1326 12.9757 2.58673C14.0721 3.04085 15.0092 3.80989 15.6685 4.79658C16.3277 5.78328 16.6796 6.94332 16.6796 8.13C16.6796 9.7213 16.0475 11.2474 14.9223 12.3726C13.7971 13.4979 12.2709 14.13 10.6796 14.13Z\" fill=\"#fff\"\/><\/svg>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/button>\n\n\t\t<button type=\"button\" class=\"practice-search-use-my-location\">\n\t\t\tSearch near me\n\t\t<\/button>\n\n\n\t<\/form>\n\n\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n<h2><b>Does sleeping in contacts increase the risk of infection?<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><em>Yes. <\/em>Corneas need oxygen to remain healthy, but they receive their oxygen directly from the air and do not receive oxygen from the lungs. The flow of oxygen and nutrients keeps the cornea clear, balanced, and functioning properly.<\/p>\n<p>During the day, open eyes allow oxygen to reach the cornea directly through the tear film.<\/p>\n<p><b>When a person sleeps with contact lenses overnight, the contact forms a barrier between the cornea and the tears, limiting the amount of oxygen delivered to the cornea at night. This is known as \u2018corneal hypoxia\u2019<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p>Even though a person\u2019s eyes are closed when they sleep, different parts of the eye, such as the aqueous humor and tears, provide only limited oxygen and nutrients to the corneas.<\/p>\n<p>A lack of oxygen may potentially cause these corneal problems;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\">Keratitis: inflammation of the cornea<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\">Conjunctivitis: inflammation of the conjunctiva<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\">Corneal neovascularization: the influx of new blood vessels into the cornea<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In serious but rare cases, dozing off in contact lenses \u2014 particularly repeatedly \u2014 can cause vision loss due to corneal scarring, necessitating the use of medicated eye drops or even surgery.<\/p>\n<h2><b>What to do if you sleep with your contacts?<\/b><\/h2>\n<p>As soon as you wake up, remove your contacts and don\u2019t insert them again for at least one day, to give your corneas some air.<\/p>\n<p>Be sure not to tug at the lens, as sleeping in contacts can make the lens harder to remove from your eye and it could tear.<\/p>\n<p><b>Apply a few drops of artificial tears before removing the lenses as that will help loosen them from your eye<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p>If you find yourself sleeping in your contact lenses on a regular basis it could impact your eye health to the point that you may not be able to wear the lenses for many days or even weeks.<\/p>\n<p><strong>LEARN MORE:\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.optometrists.org\/general-practice-optometry\/optical\/\">Optical and Contact Lenses<\/a><\/p>\n<p>If you notice any symptoms like redness, eye discharge, very watery eyes or blurred vision after a night of wearing your lenses or at any other time,<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.optometrists.org\/practice-search\/\"> schedule an appointment<\/a> with<\/strong> <b>an eye doctor near you<\/b>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>About one-third of contact lens wearers occasionally sleep with their lenses. It\u2019s easy to fall asleep in your contact lenses; one minute you\u2019re reading a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":11614,"parent":7880,"menu_order":89,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"template-article.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[424,485,229,228,204,404,406,299],"class_list":["post-11612","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-conjunctivitis","tag-contact-lens-complications","tag-contact-lenses","tag-cornea","tag-eye-drops","tag-hard-contact-lenses","tag-soft-contact-lenses","tag-vision-loss"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Is Sleeping in Contact Lenses Dangerous? - Optometrists.org<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.optometrists.org\/general-practice-optometry\/optical\/guide-to-contact-lenses\/common-contact-lens-problems\/is-sleeping-in-contact-lenses-dangerous\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is Sleeping in Contact Lenses Dangerous? - Optometrists.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"About one-third of contact lens wearers occasionally sleep with their lenses. It\u2019s easy to fall asleep in your contact lenses; one minute you\u2019re reading a\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.optometrists.org\/general-practice-optometry\/optical\/guide-to-contact-lenses\/common-contact-lens-problems\/is-sleeping-in-contact-lenses-dangerous\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Optometrists.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-07-27T13:06:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.optometrists.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/sleepcl.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"386\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.optometrists.org\/general-practice-optometry\/optical\/guide-to-contact-lenses\/common-contact-lens-problems\/is-sleeping-in-contact-lenses-dangerous\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.optometrists.org\/general-practice-optometry\/optical\/guide-to-contact-lenses\/common-contact-lens-problems\/is-sleeping-in-contact-lenses-dangerous\/\",\"name\":\"Is Sleeping in Contact Lenses Dangerous? - Optometrists.org\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.optometrists.org\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.optometrists.org\/general-practice-optometry\/optical\/guide-to-contact-lenses\/common-contact-lens-problems\/is-sleeping-in-contact-lenses-dangerous\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.optometrists.org\/general-practice-optometry\/optical\/guide-to-contact-lenses\/common-contact-lens-problems\/is-sleeping-in-contact-lenses-dangerous\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.optometrists.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/sleepcl.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-05-18T13:42:55+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-07-27T13:06:31+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.optometrists.org\/general-practice-optometry\/optical\/guide-to-contact-lenses\/common-contact-lens-problems\/is-sleeping-in-contact-lenses-dangerous\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.optometrists.org\/general-practice-optometry\/optical\/guide-to-contact-lenses\/common-contact-lens-problems\/is-sleeping-in-contact-lenses-dangerous\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.optometrists.org\/general-practice-optometry\/optical\/guide-to-contact-lenses\/common-contact-lens-problems\/is-sleeping-in-contact-lenses-dangerous\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.optometrists.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/sleepcl.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.optometrists.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/sleepcl.jpg\",\"width\":1024,\"height\":386},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.optometrists.org\/general-practice-optometry\/optical\/guide-to-contact-lenses\/common-contact-lens-problems\/is-sleeping-in-contact-lenses-dangerous\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.optometrists.org\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Primary Eye Care\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.optometrists.org\/general-practice-optometry\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Optical and Contact Lenses\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.optometrists.org\/general-practice-optometry\/optical\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"Guide to Contact Lenses\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.optometrists.org\/general-practice-optometry\/optical\/guide-to-contact-lenses\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":5,\"name\":\"Common Contact Lens Problems\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.optometrists.org\/general-practice-optometry\/optical\/guide-to-contact-lenses\/common-contact-lens-problems\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":6,\"name\":\"Is Sleeping in Contact Lenses Dangerous?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.optometrists.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.optometrists.org\/\",\"name\":\"Optometrists.org\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.optometrists.org\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Is Sleeping in Contact Lenses Dangerous? - Optometrists.org","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.optometrists.org\/general-practice-optometry\/optical\/guide-to-contact-lenses\/common-contact-lens-problems\/is-sleeping-in-contact-lenses-dangerous\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Is Sleeping in Contact Lenses Dangerous? - Optometrists.org","og_description":"About one-third of contact lens wearers occasionally sleep with their lenses. It\u2019s easy to fall asleep in your contact lenses; one minute you\u2019re reading a","og_url":"https:\/\/www.optometrists.org\/general-practice-optometry\/optical\/guide-to-contact-lenses\/common-contact-lens-problems\/is-sleeping-in-contact-lenses-dangerous\/","og_site_name":"Optometrists.org","article_modified_time":"2021-07-27T13:06:31+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1024,"height":386,"url":"https:\/\/www.optometrists.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/sleepcl.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.optometrists.org\/general-practice-optometry\/optical\/guide-to-contact-lenses\/common-contact-lens-problems\/is-sleeping-in-contact-lenses-dangerous\/","url":"https:\/\/www.optometrists.org\/general-practice-optometry\/optical\/guide-to-contact-lenses\/common-contact-lens-problems\/is-sleeping-in-contact-lenses-dangerous\/","name":"Is Sleeping in Contact Lenses Dangerous? - Optometrists.org","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.optometrists.org\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.optometrists.org\/general-practice-optometry\/optical\/guide-to-contact-lenses\/common-contact-lens-problems\/is-sleeping-in-contact-lenses-dangerous\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.optometrists.org\/general-practice-optometry\/optical\/guide-to-contact-lenses\/common-contact-lens-problems\/is-sleeping-in-contact-lenses-dangerous\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.optometrists.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/sleepcl.jpg","datePublished":"2021-05-18T13:42:55+00:00","dateModified":"2021-07-27T13:06:31+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.optometrists.org\/general-practice-optometry\/optical\/guide-to-contact-lenses\/common-contact-lens-problems\/is-sleeping-in-contact-lenses-dangerous\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.optometrists.org\/general-practice-optometry\/optical\/guide-to-contact-lenses\/common-contact-lens-problems\/is-sleeping-in-contact-lenses-dangerous\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.optometrists.org\/general-practice-optometry\/optical\/guide-to-contact-lenses\/common-contact-lens-problems\/is-sleeping-in-contact-lenses-dangerous\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.optometrists.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/sleepcl.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.optometrists.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/sleepcl.jpg","width":1024,"height":386},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.optometrists.org\/general-practice-optometry\/optical\/guide-to-contact-lenses\/common-contact-lens-problems\/is-sleeping-in-contact-lenses-dangerous\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.optometrists.org\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Primary Eye Care","item":"https:\/\/www.optometrists.org\/general-practice-optometry\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Optical and Contact Lenses","item":"https:\/\/www.optometrists.org\/general-practice-optometry\/optical\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"Guide to Contact Lenses","item":"https:\/\/www.optometrists.org\/general-practice-optometry\/optical\/guide-to-contact-lenses\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":5,"name":"Common Contact Lens Problems","item":"https:\/\/www.optometrists.org\/general-practice-optometry\/optical\/guide-to-contact-lenses\/common-contact-lens-problems\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":6,"name":"Is Sleeping in Contact Lenses Dangerous?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.optometrists.org\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.optometrists.org\/","name":"Optometrists.org","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.optometrists.org\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.optometrists.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.optometrists.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.optometrists.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.optometrists.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.optometrists.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11612"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.optometrists.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11612\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16405,"href":"https:\/\/www.optometrists.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11612\/revisions\/16405"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.optometrists.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7880"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.optometrists.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.optometrists.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.optometrists.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.optometrists.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}