Sleeping in your contact lenses?

Daily wear, extended wear, continuous wear and disposable lenses — manufacturers are moving towards solutions that eliminate maintenance entirely or make it more occasional. This aspect should be discussed with your fitter at the time of purchasing your lenses. 

Daily wear: this is what most contact lens wearers practice today. It requires daily hygiene precautions.

Extended wear: this is intended for those who do not want to handle their lenses every evening. They wear them for a week at a stretch, then remove them for cleaning and spend one night without their lenses. If you make this choice, it is obviously preferable to be fitted with lenses that "breathe" well: highly oxygen-permeable rigid lenses or highly hydrophilic soft lenses.

This system requires having fully understood the precautions to take and carefully examining your eyes every morning. At the slightest pain or anomaly — an eye that is slightly sticky upon waking or a small drop in visual acuity — you must seek advice. And, even in the absence of any problem, you must commit to frequent check-ups with the ophthalmologist or optician. 

Occasional extended wear: overnight train journeys or two or three-day mountain hikes during which you sleep in a refuge… Without necessarily being in favor of extended wear, there are certain circumstances in which you might want to keep your lenses in for three days without a break. This is possible provided you remove them at the slightest irritation. The best suited for this are soft lenses with more than 70% water content (high hydrophilia) or rigid oxygen-permeable lenses. 

Continuous wear: that would, of course, be the dream! You put your lenses in once and for all and sleep with them. You only remove them once a month or every three months to clean them… It would be ideal if it were not for nighttime. When the eyes are closed, oxygen reaches the cornea less effectively.

There can be a risk, even with high-hydrophilia soft lenses. They can mask pain and allow a small lesion to worsen rapidly. Continuous wear is therefore reserved for those who submit to very strict ophthalmological monitoring. 

Disposable lenses: the first ones appeared in France in 1989, having received approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States in 1986. They were worn for 7 days, including for sleeping, and then discarded without having been maintained.

They were met with reservations by ophthalmologists who feared serious eye complications resulting from use exceeding the seven days specified by manufacturers.

Today, there is a wide range of "daily" lenses, ideal for occasional use and especially for eye health, as the lens is new and therefore perfectly clean with each use. These disposable lenses correct all vision defects, myopia,hyperopia, astigmatism, and presbyopia.

Is there a risk in wearing contact lenses?

As we have said: extended wear and of course continuous wear require increased eye monitoring. If, on the other hand, you put your lenses in the morning and take them out in the evening, the risks are minimal because there is a warning signal: an unpleasant sensation or even pain when you remove the lens.

That is not normal. You should therefore consult your ophthalmologist or optician, who will determine whether it is dirty or torn and advise on the appropriate course of action. 

When wearing contact lenses, you must learn to "listen" to your eyes…