Why You Shouldn’t sleep on Your Piercings

 Have you ever had someone push you so hard you fell over? What if you were leaning on something that gave way? Piercings are fragile when they are healing and that makes them susceptible to migration. I legitimately pushed and messed with my Daith piercing so much while it was healing that it moved a couple of millimeters. Now it’s crooked. 

Migration

Do you know we can tell which ear you sleep on based on your piercings? The pressure of your head on the pillow actively pushes your piercings and can lead to complications. This is worse while they’re healing. 


 Here’s a picture of my own ear. This is the ear is sleep on most. The blue lines show you where the piercings should sit were they straight. Over time sleeping on this ear has caused these guys to twist slightly so they are no longer aligned. They’re still close, but should they migrate more there’s good chance I’ll be dealing with irritation bumps. 

Speaking of migrating, downsizing your piercings appropriately also helps prevent this.

We don’t want you to get bumps, and we don’t want your piercings crooked, especially if they’re meant to match both sides. 

Bacteria and Infection. 

Your pillows are a Petri dish of dead in cells, dust mites, bacteria and all sorts of things. You really don’t realize how nasty your bed actually is on a microscopic level. During your healing process it’s imperative that you keep a clean t shirt or pillow case on your bed each night. This is just in case your healing tissue comes into contact with your pillow.  It’s entirely possible to get an infection in your piercing just from dirty sheets. If your piercing is elsewhere on your body the same information applies to your bed sheets as well. Wash them and don’t be nasty. 

Pressure

Skin is resilient in many ways and delicate in others. While your tissue is forming around that new piercing it is more delicate. This means that any kind of pressure can cause irritation and disrupt the healing process. Piercing bumps are very common. They’re usually caused by damage to the piercing while it’s healing and pressure is one way to cause that damage. Imagine you being constantly pushed, eventually you’re going to fall over and your piercing will do the same over time.  Those pesky piercing bumps can take a while to go down and they can hurt. So avoiding pressure on your piercing while it’s healing is a must. 


How Long? 

Ideally you shouldn’t sleep on your piercings are all, but especially while they’re in their initial healing period. Even if it doesn’t hurt your piercing isn’t done healing overnight. You’ll definitely want to have completed at least your first downsizing after your initial healing before considering sleeping on any of them. If your piercing is still uncomfortable to sleep on then it’s definitely too soon! 

A U-shaped travel pillow to rest your head but keep the pressure off your ear is essential while your piercing is healing. 

Do you think your piercing has migrated? Do you need to downsize? Come by the studio and we can evaluate it and get you set right. 

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