Fell asleep without removing your lenses? This can happen to your eyes

fall asleep lenses

These things can happen when you go to sleep wearing your daily contact lenses

We all know that you should remove your lenses before going to bed. But yes, there are also occasional naps. And sometimes after a party you are so tired that you can only think about bed and not your eyes. But what are the risks you take when you go to sleep wearing your lenses?

Less air

Your cornea requires oxygen. If you wear lenses, your cornea already receives less oxygen. Do you go to sleep with your contact lenses in? Then your cornea is getting even less air. Research by the American Academy of Optometry shows that the oxygen content can drop so much that your cornea swells. The swelling is not huge, but it does cause small gaps between eye surface cells, and bacteria are likely to settle here. This often results in an eye infection.

Eye infection

The chance of contracting an eye infection increases if you sleep with your lenses still in. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests that you increase the chance by six to eight times if you don’t take your lenses out when you go to sleep. Bacteria can easily settle on your lenses. When you go to sleep and close your eyes, you basically keep the bacteria against your eyes all night long.

Read more on the next page.

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