A woman wearing sunglasses has issued a PSA warning about the dangers of sleeping with contacts.
The video, posted to TikTok by creator Sara Chambers (@sarammchambers), has more than 1.1 million views after going up on Tuesday.
In it, she issues a dire and disgusting warning about the practice of sleeping with contact lenses.
“Hello,” she begins. “If you need a reason to not ever sleep in your contacts, let me be the reason.” She then goes on to say that thanks to leaving her contacts in night after night, resulting in what she branded an “eye ulcer” on her pupil, “I literally cannot see. So I’m having to wear sunglasses on top of my glasses on top of my eyes being dilated.”
She then says she initially thought the irritation and appearance were from pinkeye, and she took pinkeye medication in the hopes it would go away. But, she says that when she was properly diagnosed, her doctor warned that had she waited much longer, she may have needed a cornea transplant.
According to Penn Medicine, a corneal ulcer, the formal name for an eye ulcer, “is an open sore in the outer layer of the cornea. It is often caused by infection.” The article also confirms her story that it can initially appear as pinkeye before being properly diagnosed. In extreme situations, the condition can lead to what Penn Medicine diplomatically calls “loss of the eye.”
As she puts it, “Basically, when you wear contacts, they are constantly causing little microscopic scratches on your eye. But if you take them out at night, … your eyes have 10 to 12 hours or however long to heal, and your eyes heal really, really fast. But if you never take your contacts out, then they don’t have time to heal, and bacteria can get in there and cause an ulcer.”
Some health sites back her up on this. According to the University of Texas at Austin’s University Health Sciences site, contact lenses can be one source of corneal abrasion. Additionally, the Stanford Medicine site notes, “People who wear contact lenses are at a higher risk for developing corneal ulcers, especially if they leave extended-wear lenses in their eyes for many days or weeks.”
Though she believes she’ll have time to heal, Chambers also fears, based on what she’s reportedly been told, that she’ll have permanent scarring from the misadventure. As a result, she notes, “I don’t know that I will ever wear contacts again. I’m terrified.”
@sarammchambers #greenscreen Here is your friendly reminder to never sleep in your contacts. I would rather eat a jean jacket than go through this again lol #contactlenses #selfcare #eyes #eyehealth ♬ original sound – Sara Chambers
Commenters shared Chambers’s horror.
“It can also make you go blind,” one warned without citation. “Take your contacts out every night people!”
The Cleveland Clinic site does indeed note, in the most dire part of its knowledge sharing on corneal ulcers, “Because a corneal ulcer can cause permanent vision loss, rupture your cornea and destroy the tissue in your eye socket, it’s a medical emergency. If you have symptoms of a corneal ulcer, seek immediate care. Corneal ulcers can cause blindness if not promptly treated.”
Another viewer said, “I’m a CHRONIC contact sleeper, I’ve been doing it for years. You just convinced me to get up and take them out.”
Some couldn’t imagine sleeping with them at all. One noted, “I cannot fathom how anyone sleeps in them. It’s like taking my bra off. Feels so good when they’re out.”
That led Chambers to confess she’d kept hers in for three months straight.
Finally, one viewer tried to be relatable by saying, “My cat had to get her eye removed cause of an ulcer.” That person then helpfully added, “She doesn’t wear contacts though.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to Chambers via Instagram direct message.
