Sleeping with contact lenses?

I've been sleeping with my contact lenses for years (12 exactly), and I change them every two or even four weeks (I use Acuvue).
I've never had an eye infection, injury or problem taking out or putting on my lenses.
Now my optometrist insists that I need to take them out every night (which makes me lose time and feel uncomfortable, mostly mornings when I have to rush).
As I need to change them so often, I also needed to buy regular glasses, which are expensive and horrible (I have -12 and -11 myopia (far sight) and astigmatism).
What is your experience with sleeping with contacts? It is true that you can develop little veins on your pupile/iris? That using the lenses for so long without changing them may cause you holes and early eye cataracts?

Hello Silvia.

Although contact lenses are supposed to be gas permeable, they do cut down the oxygen going to your cornea, which is the only part of your body which can breathe without a blood supply - it uses the oxygen in the air directly rather than via the blood stream. If it isn't getting enough oxygen, it will encourage the growth of blood vessels which may block your vision.

I wouldn't be surprised if cataracts eventually developed either.

I have personally always worn glasses because i don't like the idea of a foreign body in my eye, and my prescription is very like yours. You can get glasses made of a material with a very high refractive index nowadays, so they aren't like the bottoms of bottles at all.

Thanks for choosing me. I would shop around for better glasses. Mine are really not bad and also not too expensive - about 拢30, i think, and that's without the NHS. I don't know how the health care system works in Canada. Report It

my eyes always hurt like hell when i leave my contact lenses in over night, my eyes are really sensitive and i have had looads of infections. the worst one was irisitus which you really dont want to get, i couldnt watch tele for a month. i would take them out everyday if i was you. you will get used to it.

This will not cause cataracts, but it will cause blood vessels to grow into the cornea, it also cause Keratitis...the inflammation of the cornea, and also corneal ulcers....my thoughts on this is You have the one set of eyes, and not only are You lucky that You have visual aid to enable You to see, but You have been given advice by a professional Doctor as to how to keep Your eyes healthy and how to increase Your ability to continue to see "with visual aid", so look at the bright side, at least You have this option of contacts and glasses, as opposed to not having this luxury

Yes, your eye doctor is right. I can't believe she let you sleep with them in for 12 years!! Contacts are like a mini suction cup over your pupils even though you feel nothing they are causing a ton of pressure on your pupils. I know it is a pain in the butt but it is better to just wake up a couple minutes early than cause a lot of damage later when you get old.

You're very lucky that after 12 years you haven't had any problems. Please take your optometrist's advice and take them out at night. Your eyes need to breath. Everytime that I've fallen asleep with contacts in my eyes hurt SO much. They're painfully dry too. I have dry eyes due to contacts and sometimes at the end of the day it's really uncomfortable.

Once I kept my contacts in for 25-30 hours while I was traveling back home from Europe and my eyes KILLED. I'd rather wear glasses every now and then than ruin my eyes.

Wow, with such a high prescription...the lens is usually much thicker than regular...sleeping with them on is no good. You could really develop some major eye problems.

What kind of lenses are you in?

Thats weird, I told my eye doctor i've slept with them in oncee and he freaked out. He said that when you sleep something on the top of your eye like gets bigger and your lense sticks to it and if theres anything bad in your lense you get an infection. I don't know, wh atever floats your boat.