# Sleep in my eyes only without contacts.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sleep-in-my-eyes-only-without-contacts/6841>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 5, 2000, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sleep-in-my-eyes-only-without-contacts/6841 "2000-02-05T21:01:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Llardball](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f6c823/32.png) [@Llardball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Llardball)\
**Post date:** [February 5, 2000, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sleep-in-my-eyes-only-without-contacts/6841/1 "2000-02-05T21:01:00Z")

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I wear the kind of contact lenses that you can sleep in, and I never get sleep in my eyes when I wake up. When I take my contacts out once every week and sleep, I wake up with quite a bit of sleep in my eyes. Why does this happen only without contacts?

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If at first you don’t succeed, skydiving is not for you.

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**Author:** ![shantih](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f6c823/32.png) [@shantih](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shantih)\
**Post date:** [February 5, 2000, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sleep-in-my-eyes-only-without-contacts/6841/2 "2000-02-05T22:37:00Z")

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Just a WAG, but maybe your eyes become a bit irritated either when you remove the contacts or because the contacts normally provide a protective layer to the outside of the eye, and so more tears are produced when your eyes are nekked.

The same thing happens to me, but I imagine that’s because instead of the time-consuming and inconvenient method of noting how long I’ve had my contacts in (I have the disposable extended-wear type), I take them out only when one eye becomes so inflamed that I have trouble reading or driving.

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**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\
**Post date:** [February 6, 2000, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sleep-in-my-eyes-only-without-contacts/6841/3 "2000-02-06T03:34:00Z")

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> [@](#):
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> I wake up with quite a bit of sleep in my eyes

What the hell does that mean?! You mean eye snot? I never heard it referred to as “sleep” before. Where are you from?

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**Author:** ![Llardball](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f6c823/32.png) [@Llardball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Llardball)\
**Post date:** [February 6, 2000, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sleep-in-my-eyes-only-without-contacts/6841/4 "2000-02-06T05:06:00Z")

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Yes, I suppose I meant “eye snot” (that would be the technical term, wouldn’t it?). I’ve just heard it referred to as “sleep.”

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**Author:** ![Satan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Satan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Satan)\
**Post date:** [February 6, 2000, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sleep-in-my-eyes-only-without-contacts/6841/5 "2000-02-06T07:50:00Z")

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My soon-to-be ex-wife referred to it as “sleep.” **Eye Pus** was my noun of choice. If that was the only disagreement we had… But I digress.

I wear contacts all the time and have an inordinate amount of the gunk in my eyes when I wake up. When I did not wear contacts, I don’t recall this.

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Yer pal,  
Satan