2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44
Everyone who wears contact lenses has heard that sleeping in them is generally undesirable. But sometimes there is simply no strength to remove the lenses. Either you spent the night with friends, and you do not have a container and liquid for lenses with you, or you dozed off during the day. And, it would seem, no big deal, but in November, the Huffingtonpost broke the news about a man who went blind due to the fact that he slept in the lenses.
The cornea receives oxygen only from the air. When you put on contact lenses, the oxygen supply is reduced; when you close your eyes, the oxygen becomes even less. When you sleep in your lenses, oxygen deprivation can reach critical levels, according to MD and ophthalmologist Kerry Assil of the Assil Eye Institute in Los Angeles.
Due to the lack of oxygen, corneal edema occurs, which can lead to erosion. And erosion increases the risk of bacteria penetration by almost 7 times, according to Thomas Steinemann, M. D. of the American Academy of Ophthalmology. And since the eye does not have the same immunity as the rest of the body, the infection develops very quickly.
Not only that, your lenses are actually Petri dishes, says ophthalmology professor James Auran of Columbia University. That is, you keep a breeding ground of bacteria right in your eye.
But if you take a nap in the lenses for 15 minutes, nothing like this will happen, will it?
Dr. Assil compares trying to sleep in lenses even for 15 minutes with a Russian tape measure or walking through a minefield. Corneal edema begins immediately and continues as long as your eyelids are closed. The longer you sleep with your lenses, the greater the risk.
Sleeping in contact lenses is harmful to your eyes in the long term. We blink about 3,000,000 times a year, and every time you blink through our lenses, you rub a little on the shells of your eyes. The mucous membranes become coarse, not getting enough lubrication. Add in the inflammation from sleeping in your lenses and you can see how you make the problem worse. And if you are prone to dry eyes and allergic reactions, then sleeping in lenses can lead to their intolerance, and you will never be able to wear lenses again.
Output
Take 30 seconds before bed to remove your lenses, or buy only silicone hydrogel lenses that are labeled as suitable for 24/7 wear. If you still had to fall asleep in the lenses for some reason (a long flight on an airplane, an unexpected overnight stay away from home), drip moisturizing drops into your eyes before bedtime and always in large quantities after bedtime. Before you drop the drops, do not try to remove the lenses: you can scratch the cornea, which has already been damaged during sleep.
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