what happens if you sleep in your contacts?

Answer 1

If you are wearing contact lenses that are not made to be worn overnight it will greatly deprive your cornea of oxygen.
A cornea deprived of oxygen is very susceptible to damage and infection!!! Sleeping in your daily wear contact lenses once will probably not cause any lasting damage to your eyes, but it is definitely not good for you!!!
If you frequently over wear your daily wear lenses (overnight/too many hours in a day) then you will be causing damage to your cornea...whether you realize it or not!
This can result in higher risk of infection and damage that can be permanent. In serious cases this can lead to inability to wear contact lenses and even in loss of vision. This is very serious.....so if you have daily wear lenses it is very important to stick to the wear time prescribed by your doctor.
If you are interested in wearing your contacts for longer periods of time you should talk to your doctor to see if extended wear contact lenses would be right for you :)

Answer 2

if you sleep in contacts that are not made to be slept in, you are increasing the risk for short-term corneal infection & inflammatory events by about 800% (studies show)

sleeping in contacts long term is to your cornea like smoking 2 packs a day is to your lungs. you can go a few times and probably be okay if you dont have an infection, but keep doing it and its just a matter of time before you have some serious problems like corneal neovascularization:

http://www.eyetec.net/group7/images/m36_p1.jpg

or corneal limbal stem cell dysfunction.

its kind of a big deal, even if you do it a few times and feel pretty good afterwards. having them "dry out" or "stick to your eyes" is only uncomfortable...thats the least of your worries. staph infection & exotoxin reactions are the real short term danger, and chronic hypoxia is the real long term risk.

Answer 3

If they are soft, daily-wear lenses, you could be doing your eyes a world of hurt. Since you're not getting any lubrication throughout the night, they will "suction" onto your eyeballs. I did this once and will never do it again. My eyes were really red for almost a week. Even if you don't have any solution around at least put them in water. They'll still suction on but keep blinking and natural tears will lubricate them.

Answer 4

some possibles are: dislodge the contact and have it float back into the eye far enought that it needs a doc to remove it. Hard contacts can move back far enough to cut or damage the eye. Infection, swelling, or, nothing at all.

Answer 5

Depends on which contacts you have, ask your eye doctor

Answer 6

Nothing really. It also depends on which contacts you use. I can wear mine stright for a week without taking them out. If you are unsure, take them out for a while, also dont wear them overnight consistintly if you dont know if you can.

Answer 7

U may have severe infection.

Answer 8

usually it doesn't bother people but sometimes they stick to your eyes and it's hard to take them out. Also they may make you eyes itch later causing irrritation.