When You Sleep In Contacts, This Is What Happens To Your Eyes

When we sleep, that happens to be when our eyes carry out the repair and regenerative work it cannot do when we are awake (via Cooper Vision). To do the work, eyes need ambient oxygen exposure, which is important for keeping your eyes healthy."What a contact lens does is limit the oxygen even more because it creates a barrier between the oxygen and the cornea," Russel Wohl, an eye doctor, tells Glamour.

Inserting a foreign object (because really, that's what a contact lens is) into a part of your body and leaving it there also increases your chances of developing an infection in that area. If bacteria happens to get into your eye and makes its way to your cornea, the contact lens creates the ideal condition for an infection to take root and thrive. "The bacteria can then become opportunistic and literally start to eat away at your cornea," says Wohl. "Worst case scenario from that is loss of vision." There is also the threat of hypoxia, which is when a specific part of a body is deprived of oxygen.