It is okay to take a nap while wearing contact lenses when they are lesnses CIBA Vision Night & Day?

Though there are contacts that are approved by the FDA for sleeping in, most doctors recommend you do not sleep in them for the following reasons:

When you sleep, your eyes produce less tears. The contact is covering the cornea of your eye, which requires oxygen only available from your tears. Though contacts approved for sleeping in allow some oxygen to get through, it is never as much as your eye would receive from not having the contact on in the first place.

When you sleep, your eyes obviously do not blink. Blinking is important because it phsycially brushes away debris that can get between your eye and the contact.

When you sleep, your eye produces more proteins to combat infection. These proteins are usually washed away by the action of the tears. In contact lens wearers, they instead accumulate on your contacts. In fact, they accumulate 10 times faster when you sleep then when you are awake.

For the reasons listed above, people who sleep in their contacts (yes, naps count as sleeping!) are at a greatly increased risk of getting nasty eye infections than people who take them out in the evenings.

So, CAN you sleep (or nap) in them. Yes. SHOULD you sleep or nap in them? No, avoid it. Your contacts will last longer, you’ll save money in the process, and you’ll greatly decrease your chance of eye infection. This is why your doctor does not recommend sleeping in them.