Tori Spelling reveals she has a painful eye ulcer after sleeping with her daily contact lenses in

• Tori Spelling revealed that she got an eye ulcer after leaving her daily contacts in her eyes for weeks.
• She said the longest time she's left them in is "maybe 20 days" at a time.

At the beginning of Tuesday's episode of iHeartRadio's "9021OMG" podcast, Tori Spelling revealed that she was wearing an eye patch because she got an eye ulcer after leaving her daily contacts in for weeks.

"It's my fault, I did this to myself," the "90210" star said . "I don't take them out, I sleep in them and you're supposed to change them."

"I've been known to go maybe 20 days," Spelling said to her co-host and former co-star Jennie Garth, who gasped.

Spelling said her doctor told her she was "lucky to get away with it."The ulcer, she said, is "like a cut flap on your eyeball" and it "hurts so bad" but should heal after seven to 10 days wearing an eye patch.

For now, her 14-year-old daughter Stella McDermott is her "emotional support child." ("A child has to take me around, literally. I have a designated seeing-eye child," the "Scary Movie 2" star said.)

But once her ulcer heals, Spelling said, she's taking no chances: she's going to switch to 30-day contacts.

An optometrist explains why you should take out your contact lenses at night

Dr. Hanish Patel, an optometrist at Eye Associates of New York, told Insider that there's an inherent risk of infection with contact lenses, but using daily disposable lenses — and changing them regularly — can help to minimize that risk.

Patients who opt for resusable lenses, which can be cleaned and reworn for up to 30 days, tend to have a higher risk of infection if they don't clean them appropriately, Patel said. With daily disposables, all you have to do is remember to take them out before you go to sleep.

"Once your lids are closed, it's warm and wet, and it's a nice environment for bacteria and other things to to grow," Patel said. "That's why we generally don't recommend sleeping in contact lenses."

While a quick nap may not result in an ulcer or infection, sleeping in contacts for multiple days or nights in a row means that anything stuck under the lenses has time to irritate your eyes. Corneal ulcers, like what Spelling experienced, can lead to permanent vision loss depending on their location on the eye.

In general, it's good practice to wash your hands before changing your contacts, remove them before bedtime, and put in a fresh pair in the morning, Patel said. Your eyes will thank you in the long run.