Sleeping on a fresh piercing is a common cause of healing problems. When you sleep on a piercing, you put pressure and friction on the piercing, which can cause all kinds of complications such as irritation, pain, extra swelling and bumps. You can also get an infection through your pillowcase and a piercing can grow crooked. Even when it doesn’t hurt when you sleep on it it’s wise to make sure you don’t because a piercing can still grow crooked and that is often painless. It is permanent however! Cartilage piercings are often much more susceptible to complications from sleeping on them than ear lobe piercings. Cartilage piercings have a much longer healing time which means there is more time for something to go wrong and cartilage is much more unforgivable than the earlobe. This means that when something happens with a cartilage piercing, it leads to complications much faster than when the same happens with an earlobe piercing.
It is therefore very important not to sleep on fresh piercings, especially cartilage piercings, but that is easier said than done. If you have one side that you always sleep on, it may be wise to put your piercing on the other side. Some people can decide for themselves on which side they sleep, other people still turn a lot in their sleep. If you notice in the morning that the piercing is sensitive, hurting, feeling sore or you wake up on the piercing side,it’s very likely that you have slept on it.
If you notice that you do lie on it in your sleep, you can clip a hair clip in your hair on the side where you have been pierced before going to sleep. If you then roll up on the side in your sleep, you notice that you are not comfortable and you roll back to the other side. This way you get the sleep you need and your piercing the rest it needs. You can also make a ponytail or a bun instead of a hair clip or both. Especially when you have soft hair, this is useful because then the clamp will stay in place better while you sleep.
You can also use a donut pillow or neck pillow. When you lie in the hole with your pierced ear, there is no pressure on the piercing and you therefore prevent problems.
Try out what works for you, not every tip works equally well for everyone, so if something doesn’t work for you, you can always try something different. Remember that it is very important not to sleep on your piercing and that as long as you sleep on it the problems caused by it will not go away.