When Can You Leave Earrings Out Overnight? The truth is that there is no accurate timeline for when it’s 100% safe to leave your earrings on through the night. However, there are signs that you can look out for, signs that tell you it is safe for you to leave the earrings out through the night.
Essentially, the healing time for ear piercings is put at around 6 weeks. But for some people, the healing time may be longer than 6 weeks, which means that it might not be ideal for you to leave your earrings out overnight at six weeks.
On the other hand, some people safely go through the night without earrings before the 6 weeks healing period lapses.
With these differences, and the fact that we wouldn’t want you to risk closure of the piercing hole because it was too soon, or worse, have you struggle with a bleeding piercing hole because you tried to put the earrings back and it didn’t go well, we’re sharing this article that outlines everything you need to know about the healing process for ear piercings, and how long you have to wait before leaving the piercing in.
When can you leave earrings out overnight?
So, when is it safe to leave your earrings out through the night?
It depends.
For new ear piercings, you may want to keep the earrings on for the first 6 weeks. This is essential and a relatively long enough time for the piercing to start healing properly. Removing the earrings overnight before the lapse of the 6-week period would slow down the healing process while increasing the risk of infections.
And even if your piercings are healed, but you’d still like to keep them on longer, you could.
While the earrings might feel alien the first few days if you just got your first piercings, you shouldn’t remove new earrings at night.
Besides the risk of infections, removing earrings overnight is often counterproductive because new piercings close off very fast.
The body is magical, and it does its best to keep wounds closed for fast healing, and the piercing will close off within very few hours, which is why it wouldn’t be ideal to remove the earrings for the night.
Then there is the issue of pain. After removing your piercings overnight, any attempt to put the earrings back in the morning will be painful, uncomfortable, and this only prolongs the healing time while increasing the risk of scarring.
Always remember that healing will not happen overnight, but a new piercing left without earrings will close overnight.
You may want to sleep through the discomfort for 6-8 weeks. For more detailed answers, please read this article: ear piercing healing timeline.
Why do my pierced ears keep closing up?
If you recently got ear piercings, but they keep closing up yet, it’s been weeks; you may be questioning every decision you’ve ever made, including why you got the piercings in the first place.
You could have tried putting back the earrings on severally, albeit uncomfortably and painfully.
But before you give up on your ears and the wondering earrings you’ve been adding to ‘Favorites’ in your go-to online shopping store, let’s look at the reasons why the piercing holes keep closing up.
The first reason for the constantly closing up ear piercings is crooked and raw piercing holes. This often happens when you accidentally end up piercing another hole from the original hole every time you try re-piercing the ear.
This means that you could now have two exit points, but since the second one is practically raw, it closes up every time you take out the earrings.
So, in as much as the original piercing is there and probably open/ healed, you still end up using the new and raw piercing, which keeps closing up when you take out the earrings.
The good news is that you can tell there is a raw piercing if you notice irritation or a white liquid that crystalizes at the end of the piercing. Unfortunately, this comes with several risks, including:
- Improper earring placement
- Misaligned piercings
- Infections
- Ugly scarring, excess scar tissue, and keloids
- The need to have the area re-pierced again (and having to wait 6-8 weeks or more for the piercings to heal).
- The other reason why your piercing will keep closing up is the removal of the piercing earrings too soon/ before the piercing heals.
What Should You Do If Your Ear Piercing Closes Up?
You will be tempted to force open the ear piercing, and though it works for some people, it might not be the best strategy for you.
However, you could play around with that piercing gently, just to see if there is a thin skin later that could be closing the top of the piercing in an attempt to heal itself.
If you have that thin layer of skin, apply a little pressure using the earrings. This should pop that layer of skin with no messiness or pain.
- For a higher chance of success, you could try the following before prying it open.
- Clean and disinfect the area around the piercing, and also the earrings
- Try opening up the closed piercing immediately after showering because the skin will be soft and malleable after that warm shower.
- You could also massage the piercings with some oil like jojoba or emu oil.
- Pull the skin around the piercing a bit to help make the pierced hole bigger and to make it easy for you to insert the earrings.
- You should also try inserting the earring from different angles, including from the back of the hole. Also, try to shift the earring very gently as you put the ring through the hole.
If all these fail, consult a professional. Remember that trying to force open the piercing hole is similar to opening up a wound, which means that if you cannot open up the piercing hole without feeling any pain, you should leave it.
You are better off letting that piercing seal off on its own or going back to the piercer for a new piercing.
Conclusion
New piercings might not be very uncomfortable, and you only need to give it about 6-8 weeks to heal, but it calls for a lot of patience.
So, if you are not ready to sleep through the discomfort for as long as the piercing heals, you may want to reconsider getting the piercing.
For more useful piercing tips, please visit here or visit our main page for the latest posts!
Stephanie is a jewelry lover when she was a teenager. Her major was fashion design when she was in college. She is a jewelry designer at SOQ Jewelry and other design companies. Now she is also a writer for our website. She writes a lot of designs&brands posts with very actionable tips.