Can You Sleep On Industrial Piercing?

sleeping on industrial piercing

One of the exciting things about an industrial piercing is the uniqueness of the jewelry used to join both piercings as one.

Barbell jewelry is edgy and they are available in several designs and lengths for you to choose from. But, the way a barbell is fixed also makes some activities such as sleeping while your industrial piercing is healing hard.

Industrial piercings are raging and taking a lot of believers on their rage, but as anything gains widespread popularity, more questions naturally arise. One of which is the very relevant thought as to if you can sleep on your industrial piercing or how to manage sleeping while it heals.

Can You Sleep On Industrial Piercing?

Industrial piercings are a double piercing type, with this in consideration, industrial piercings are likely to cause more discomfort than other single piercings.

It is not safe or advisable to rest or sleep with your piercing being pressed against the bed, it is like adding constant pressure to a healing wound, it is uncomfortable and could worsen the state of the wound.

industrial piercing guide

Just as you would try to keep a wound clear of unnecessary contact and added pressure to avoid irritating it or causing yourself pain, industrial piercings should not be slept on. While your piercing is still fresh, it will hurt to rest on it, the jewelry present will also make sleeping very uncomfortable if you decide to lay on the side with your piercing.

If you have developed an attitude of sleeping on a particular side of your body that requires you to rest on your ear, it might be harder for you to come to terms with the fact that you can not rest on your ears while your industrial piercing is healing.

In a case where you only pierced one ear instead of two, you can just rest on the other ear instead.

Falling asleep on your couch and resting your healing industrial piercing against it, leaning on a table in class with your industrial piercing on the hard surface, or rolling over to the side with your industrial piercing while you sleep are things you want to religiously avoid while your piercing is not yet fully healed.

Aside from the fact that hard surfaces are generally uncomfortable to sleep or rest on, being in contact with hard or enough surfaces will only cause your piercing to feel sore and eventually lead to irritations.

Industrial Piercing Complications

A serious complication that arises from sleeping on your industrial piercing is your barbell jewelry getting caught or roughly scratched against a surface.

Barbells are long and the straight part of the jewelry can easily be snagged against a surface, if you feel the discomfort that comes from rubbing your jewelry while you’re asleep, you would instinctively want to pull away, and being asleep means you might end up pulling away too quickly in a way that could cause an injury.

industrial piercing guide

An injury, in this case, is an infection that you could have easily prevented by sleeping cautiously.

Sleeping on your industrial piercing is an invitation for bacterial infections, by resting on just any surface you risk exposing your healing or fresh piercing to infections.

Adding pressure on your jewelry is most likely to cause scarring on your ear and in more serious cases it could also result in bleeding. While resting or sleeping on your piercing, it may also cause the angle of the piercing to change because of the shifting of your jewelry and this would make it swell eventually.

You must be wondering how long you would need to wait to be able to sleep or rest on your industrial piercing without risking an infection or scarring. It takes an industrial piercing about 4 – 6 months to heal but for complete healing, it could take as long as one year.

After the first six months, you may be able to sleep on your piercing but we would advise you to wait till it’s completely healed, this is because an industrial piercing heals on the outside before the insides, so resting on it after those six months may still cause irritations.

How to sleep with an industrial piercing?

Since we have outlined the possible dangers of sleeping on your industrial piercing, you might feel somewhat discouraged as to whether you should get an industrial piercing or not.

Although it might be a task to sleep especially if you’re used to laying on your sides, with a few sleeping tips, you’ll do just great and have a complication-free healing phase. Below are sleeping tips to consider while your industrial piercing is healing;

Industrial piercing guide - what to know
Image: Etsy.

1. You need to avoid resting on your piercing at all

This is the most important tip, it is a notice that although there are sleeping tips, they are not meant to encourage you to rest on your industrial piercing, they are simply supposed to make.

Adjusting to a new sleeping position is easier until it is safe for you to rest on your piercing. If you planned to pierce both ears at once but you can not sleep well except you’re resting on your side, it is best to pierce one ear at a time, for your safety and comfort.

2. Try to adjust to a new sleeping position

In a situation where you pierced both ears without considering the sleep factor, you would need to adopt a new sleeping position that does not require you to rest on your piercings.

You can try sleeping on your back or resting on your stomach or any other tricky style that makes sure no pressure is mounted on your piercings.

3. Sleep using a travel pillow

A normal pillow will definitely require you to rest and put a lot of weight on your industrial piercing if you decide to sleep on one. But with a travel pillow, you can rest your head while laying on your side and still make sure your piercing is not affected.

You would normally wrap your travel pillow around your neck but in this case, drop it on your bed, let your ear be placed in the middle where there’s a hole and then you can rest your head on the top of the pillow.

Summary

One thing you should dread while your piercing is healing is an infection. Sleeping or resting on your piercing while it heals is a NO. This only exposes you to infections, swelling, discomfort, scarring, or bleeding.

Any of these could slow down an already long healing process, and since these risks are avoidable, it is best that you completely avoid applying any sort of pressure to your industrial piercing until it heals.

Six months to one year is a long wait but that’s the price to pay to look daring and edgy in an industrial piercing.

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