Three completely different devices get called night patches, and they solve three different problems. Using the wrong one is at best useless and at worst puts pressure on an eye that should not be pressed.
Anything worn over a closed eye for six or eight hours must rest on the bone around the orbit — brow, cheekbone, nose — and vault over the eye itself. Flat sleep masks pressed down by a side-sleeping face are the common failure. Sustained pressure on the eye is uncomfortable at best, and after surgery or trauma it is genuinely unsafe.
Practical checks: you should be able to blink freely under the device, and there should be no mark on the lid in the morning.
A clear vented plastic dome taped so it rests on the bone. The purpose is purely mechanical — stopping a knuckle, a pillow or a pet from contacting the eye while you are asleep. Typically worn nightly for about the first week after cataract surgery, longer in some cases, and immediately after trauma while awaiting assessment. Detail: after cataract surgery and after an eye injury.
Tape it to the shield and the surrounding bone, never to the eyelid, and shift the tape position slightly each night to spare the skin: skin irritation.
If you wake with a gritty, burning eye that improves through the morning, your lids may not be closing completely — nocturnal lagophthalmos. A moisture chamber seals a small volume of humid air around the orbit so the tear film stops evaporating and any prescribed ointment stays put. This is the single most useful overnight device for anyone with facial nerve weakness, thyroid eye disease or a history of eyelid surgery. Full guide: night patches for dry eye and lagophthalmos.
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An ordinary flat mask presses on the lids, particularly for side sleepers, and can leave the eyes feeling bruised in the morning. A contoured mask with moulded eye cups blocks the same amount of light while leaving space for the lids to blink and the lashes to move. If you wear lash extensions, use eyelid ointment, or have prominent eyes, the contoured shape is the only sensible option.
What a sleep mask does not do: it does not seal moisture in, and it is not protection after surgery. Two very common substitutions, both wrong.
Worth stating plainly because it comes up often: a child in amblyopia treatment should not wear their patch to bed. Prescribed hours are waking hours, and overnight occlusion adds nothing while risking skin problems and a patch that ends up somewhere it should not. If your prescribed hours are hard to fit into the day, that is a conversation for the clinic, not a reason to extend into the night: how many hours a day.
It depends which device and why. Rigid shields after surgery and moisture chambers for dry eye are designed for overnight use. Adhesive occlusion patches for amblyopia are not — prescribed hours are waking hours.
Yes. Anything worn overnight should rest on the bone around the orbit and vault over the eye. Flat sleep masks pressed down by a side-sleeping face are the usual culprit; a contoured mask solves it.
Only slightly. A sleep mask blocks light but does not seal humidity around the eye. If you wake with a gritty, burning eye, you need a moisture chamber rather than a mask.