Why you should not with contact lenses to sleep

Suddenly, he saw only a blur, and his eyes were reddened: A man in the United States had several times left in the week, his contact lenses over night in the eye and you also don’t Swim in it taken out, although they were not suitable.

The duration of wear, led to germs in the lens stayed, caused, finally, skin is inflammation of the cornea. Doctors had to the man of every hour, antibiotics eye drops. The only way you could prevent permanent damage.

US doctors have collected these and other cases, to draw attention to it, how dangerous it can be to sleep with contact lenses. The Problem: to Stay in contact lenses longer eye than intended, can grow bacteria or viruses, an explosion, which can lead to inflammation of the cornea, reports, the doctors in the journal “Annals of Emergency Medicine”.

A NAP is dangerous

In the case of a youth with a horn formed ulcer of the skin on the eye, because she had slept with the lenses. It came to scarring. And in the case of a man who wore two weeks the same lenses, diagnosed skin the Doctors holes in the horn as well as a bacterial infection. His eye could only be due to a cornea transplant saved.

The US authors of the mentioned cases show not only that an infection of the cornea in a banal way, can be caused. They also show how complicated the treatment is often. A NAP with contact lenses increased the risk for inflammation of the cornea. To sleep “with contact lenses is risky and can lead to permanent infection or in some cases, to damage,” – said in the report.

How many people with contact lenses, fall asleep, although these are not suitable, is unclear. The latest Figures, there are not. According to the professional Association of German ophthalmologists (BVA) in Germany, about 3.4 million people contact lenses.

In the worst case, blindness threatens

German ophthalmologists caution when dealing with contact lenses to care. Pathogens can migrate into the soft Material of the lenses, it is the BVA. Lenses are used longer than recommended, be complications to worry about. Wash your hands before Inserting the lenses, take Out, thorough cleaning, and careful storage of the visual AIDS were indispensable.

Lenses should also come with water in contact. “Neglected these rules, paving to pathogens the way to the eye,” says Oliver Hoppe, specialist for ophthalmology in Cologne and head of the working group on contact lenses in the BVA. He advises patients not to wear commercially available contact lenses during the night.

Although would have to worry about when an infection is the least of all patients, in fact, a blindness. Could this be done but nevertheless, for example, if Akanthamöben – tiny parasites penetrate the skin through micro-injuries in the horn. “Then it will be very dangerous,” warns Hoppe.