Short answer: you can fall asleep with daytime eyelid tape on, and many people do, but it is not doing the job you bought it for. Daytime tape is designed to hold the skin of an open eye in a fold. While you sleep, your eye is closed, the lid is relaxed and the tape is mostly resting on skin that has nothing to hold up. Tape that is made for the night works the other way round: it is applied to the closed, extended eyelid and is designed to guide and support a crease path while you sleep, so that the crease is practiced night after night.

What daytime tape is designed to do

Daytime strips, fiber strips and eyelid glue all share one goal: make a visible crease right now, while the eye is open. They do this by lifting or sticking the skin above the lash line so the lid folds at that point. That works for the day, and if you remove it gently in the evening the skin gets a rest overnight.

Sleeping in it changes the picture. The lid is no longer open, so the strip is not holding a fold. It is simply adhesive sitting on thin eyelid skin for another eight hours, often under a pillow, with the usual rubbing and shifting that happens during sleep. The common complaints we hear are the tape moving, a sticky or dry feeling in the morning, and redness where the edge rubbed. None of that means daytime tape is dangerous, and it does not mean it always falls off. It means it was not designed for a closed eye.

What a nighttime system is designed to do

Optifold is a two-tape nighttime system, worn for about 8 to 9 hours while you sleep and removed in the morning. Each tape has a different job:

• F-tape is placed along the crease path you want to practice, on skin that is gently extended with a tabletop mirror below eye level, chin slightly up, brow lifted and eyes looking down. It guides where the lid folds.
• N-tape goes on second and supports the fold while the eye is closed, so the crease is held in the same place through the night rather than only for a few minutes.

In the morning you remove the N-tape first, from the inner corner outward, release the skin from the F-tape, then remove the F-tape from its tail, outer corner inward. Most people take both tapes off at the same time. If an Eyelid Advisor recommends it for your case, the F-tape on its own can stay for 30 minutes to 1 hour at most, never longer. The step-by-step version with photos is on the instructions page.

The intended result is different too. Daytime tape gives you a crease while it is on. A nighttime system is designed so that the crease you practice at night shows up in the daytime without tape, first for hours, then for most of the day, then for longer stretches. How far that goes, and how fast, varies from person to person.

Does sleeping with tape hurt the eyelid skin?

The question people are really asking is about adhesive and thin skin. Eyelid skin is among the thinnest on the body, so the way tape is removed matters more than how long it is worn. A few habits make the difference:

• Apply to clean, dry skin. No cream or oil under the tape.
• Remove slowly and in the right order. Separate the skin from the adhesive before pulling the tape away; never rip it off.
• Do not stack daytime tape or glue on top of a night routine. One routine at a time.
• If the skin is red, itchy or swollen, stop for a few nights and let it settle. If it does not settle, or you have an eye infection, a recent eye procedure or a lid that has started drooping on its own, speak to a doctor before using any eyelid product.

We wrote more about the sagging worry, and what actually stretches eyelid skin, in Does eyelid tape make your eyelids sag?

Daytime tape and night tape are not competitors

Some people use daytime products for events and a nighttime routine to practice the crease. The two are compared side by side, including when each is worn and how to assess your crease after removal, in Daytime vs. nighttime double eyelid tape. If you only want a crease for one evening, a daytime strip is the simpler tool. If you want the crease to be there when you wake up and after you take the tape off, that is what a nighttime system is designed for.

Before your first night

1. Read the instructions once, including the mirror setup. Placement is what makes or breaks the routine.
2. Decide the crease path first. With a clean rounded tool, trace the line 10 to 20 times and see where the lid wants to fold; that is usually where the F-tape goes.
3. Take a photo in the morning in the same light every day. Progress is easier to see in photos than in the mirror.

Not sure which size or placement fits your eyelid? Start with the Find Your Best Fit assessment. It takes a few minutes and tells you whether tape alone, or tape with guidance, is the better starting point. The tapes themselves are here.

This article is general information, not medical advice. Results from any eyelid routine vary from person to person.