leaving contact lenses in overnight

[teag1rl]

how bad is it for your eyes to leave daily diposables in overnight? I somehow nelgect to take them out on the odd Sat night, and end up sleeping in them and going on to wear them to play sport on sun until I take them out after. Am I killing my eyes?

[chazza]

I've heard a lot of people say that they keep them in overnight with no damage, however my optician told me that there is a possiblity they could 'bind' to my eyes and a trip to hospital would be needed to remove them!

I would say that the length of time you are wearing them may well cause you long term damage. Try wearing them for a maximum of 10 hours a day as you are depriving your eyes of oxygen.

Or perhaps you could try the lenses designed to be worn 24 hours a day?

[teag1rl]

Thankyou chazza. I'm thinking I may have to swap the type of lenses I wear, summers coming (hopefully-somewhere!) so more sport and more drunken nights sleeping in lenses no doubt!

[4getmenot]

I tried them ones you sleep in coz I was going to Glasto and didnt want to be putting lenses in and out my eyes in a dirty environment but they wernt compatible with my syes :-( But chazza is right starving your eyes of oxygen isnt good.

[nancie]

I used to do that alot, and you know what happened? A few months later my eyes became super sensitive to contacts and it really hurt to put them in, and i could not wear them for a while. I had to go eye casulalty because they were red raw with over wearing and doc said my eyes were criss crossed with scratches from the lenses.

After a few months i stupidly did the same thing and went hospital with nearvasculisation and corneal ulcers, which is where the cornea is starved of oxygen, (as the lens covers the cornea.) Contact lenses generally are made from materials which allow the eye to breathe through the lens using a special material but only for a while, say 12 hours at the absolute max.

Your blood vessels grow from the white bit of your eye (sclera) to your cornea in an attempt to deliver more oxygen and looks horrible, It took a few months for my eyes to become clear again, but the pain was extreme and was horrible, couldn't even look into day light and they constantly streamed tears. I urge you to quit wearing them overnight as you are doing so much damage. The corneal ulcers were really painful as they are cold sores but inside your eye and i had to take anti-viral drops and antibiotics which are inconvenient.

There are contact lenses you can buy that you can continously wear for 30 days and nights without ever taking them out and are availbale at Specsavers, see your optician and ask for a trial if you cant trust your self to take them out. They are called day and night.

I still wear lenses now but i make sure i clean them properly (which you aren't doing as you leave them in sometimes), and take them out at night man, it only takes 2 minutes. Go into google images and type in eye diseases and you will be shocked into better tactics!!

[teag1rl]

Thankyou very much nancie, that's just the shock I needed. I'm not leaving them in on purpose honest, I just get wrecked and I forget I've got them in. Will definitley not be doing that again tho. Thank you thank you thank you!