Is it OK to sleep with contact lenses in my eyes?

[Druid Hills]

My doctor tells me not to sleep with contacts. But many of my friends do and nothing happens. I am still wondering if I sleep with contacts. Is that safe?

[Drummond]

Sleeping with contact lenses is not really dangerous enough, but it indeed has a side effect on your eyes. Depending on the type on contact lenses you are wearing, there can be varying effects of sleeping with contacts. If you use daily contact r lenses, then you may wake up with really dry eyes. You may find it really painful to blink till you splash some water in your eyes, and also experience some soreness, irritation, puffiness and redness in your eyes, the lenses become dry and your eyes are irritated, so you wake up with uncomfortable eyes and your lenses may tend to irritate you more throughout the day, especially later the next evening when it is time to take them out. On the other hand, if you are sleeping with extended use contact lenses, then you are quite safe. Depending upon the type of extended wear lenses that you are using, the effects may vary.

[Drumore]

If you wear the normal contact lenses, I recommend you not to sleep with contact lenses. Now I will tell you why. Many soft contact lenses will not keep clean for a long time in your eyes. Our eyes will secrete various proteins which will stick to the contact lenses. The soft contact lenses can not let enough oxygen get though and make your eyes lack of oxygen. Because of this, you may suffer irritation, red eyes, scratches on your cornea and infections. If you sleep with contact lenses usually, the risk is high for you to getting eye illness. So I advise you not to sleep with contact lenses. Or you should buy special contact lenses which can be allowed to sleep with them

[Drumright]

Definitely not! Contacts in your eyes should not be longer than 12 hours. If you really have something important to do and should wear them, you can take them out and let your eyes have a rest. Soft contact lenses' oxygen permeability is not so good, but our eyes need oxygen, or they will be infected. So, if you sleep with contacts, your eyes cannot breathe. What's more, sleep with contacts makes them attach to the eyeballs in a very long time and this will make nerve ending numb and lead to cornea consciousness decreases. Many people sleep with contacts suffer from ulcerative keratitis without conscious. By the way, one of my best friends wore contacts when she slept for a very long time. She was so happy that nothing happen to her, but in the next year, her eyes suffered from kinds of eye diseases in a very time. So, you should never sleep with contacts and please share my friend's story with your friends.

[Dry Creek]

Sleeping with contact lenses is dangerous and have a side effect on your eyes. If you use daily wear lenses, then you may wake up with really dry eyes. You may find it really painful to blink till you splash some water in your eyes, and also experience some soreness, irritation, puffiness and redness in your eyes, the lenses become dry and your eyes are irritated, so you wake up with uncomfortable eyes and your lenses may tend to irritate you more throughout the day, especially later the next evening when it's time to take them out. Even if you are sleeping with extended use contact lenses, you still in greater risks.

[Dry Fork]

Yes, it is harmful to eyes if you wear it while sleeping. If you are sleeping with daily contact lenses, you would feel dry eyes and uncomfortable after waking up. And it's really painful to your eyes until reset your eyes, even it would damage the cornea because the dry environment around your eyes.