Dear Marissa,
I love going out parties, but I have a terrible habit of saying out super-late and crashing on a friend's couch to prevent drunk driving. This would all be fine if I didn't wear contacts! Is it OK if I sleep in them, just once a week?
-Prescription Beer Goggles
Dear Prescription Beer Goggles,
Firstly, bravo for preventing drunk driving -- one of the leading causes of death in college-aged students in the U.S. However, you won't even be able to drive at all if you go blind.
As far as risky college behaviors go, overnight contact-lens-wearing is pretty far down on the list. But as far as risky college behaviors for your eyes go, overnight contact-wearing is second only to archery drinking games. Here's why:
Most contacts aren't meant to be worn at night. When your eyes are open, tear film constantly collects bacteria and proteins, and as you blink, your eyelid moves these away from the surface of your eye.
When you're asleep in your bed, your cornea swells, binding your contact ever-so-close to your eye, which mean that not as much oxygen can get to your eye.In addition, you create fewer tears, which usually help regulate oxygen in your eyes.
So if you're snoring like a baby and still wearing contacts, proteins build up and get trapped under your contacts and tears can't properly remove them. These proteins become breeding grounds for infections that can cause corneal ulcers (known in the medical world as ulcerative keratitis). Just what causes these nasty ulcers? Nearly every nasty living thing on the planet
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