Should You Sleep With Your Engagement Ring On?

Let’s be honest, if you’re like most girls, the only time you ever even think to take your engagement ring off is to hit the gym (which you absolutely should BTW, especially if you’ll be lifting weights!). But what about when you hit the hay? Is it okay to snooze with a rock on your finger or should you really be giving it a rest? We talked to some jewelry pros to find out why or why not.

According to Richard Wubnig, director of sales at Gerald Peters fine jewelry store in Staten Island, sleeping with your engagement ring on is in fact not a good idea. “An engagement ring is a fine piece of jewelry and should be treated as such,” he says. “It’s easy when you’re asleep for your ring to get caught in things such as your hair or on your sheets and this can cause the stone to loosen in the setting.” Richard’s advice is to have one safe spot in your house as the only place you ever take your ring off and store it to prevent from losing it. “This way when your ring is not on you, there is only one place it could be.” Fair enough.

Torsten Flaegel, owner of Yaf Sparkle, an independent jewelry boutique in the heart of NYC’s Lower East Side, disagrees…well, sort of. In his opinion, the biggest pro is that you can’t lose it when you wear it, he tells us, particularly when sleeping away from home. “I see nothing but pros, as an engagement ring and wedding band is made to be worn at all times and to many people it seems to be bad luck to take it off frequently.” There are two cases, however, that it could be detrimental, he acknowledges. “If you chose a stone other than white diamonds or the other precious stones such as sapphire, emeralds and rubies, then you might want to find out the hardness of your stone on the Mohs scale. “Opals, for example, are rather fragile, and it might make the wearer feel more comfortable to put it away safely. The other case is simply if your ring is too tight and you tend to swell up over night.”

Also, if you’re a big tosser and turner between the sheets, taking your ring off is probably a wise idea as well. “It could snag on your bedding and could potentially not only damage your bedding, but a prong,” points out private jeweler Dan Moran, founder of Concierge Diamonds, Inc. in Los Angeles. Another reason to take your rings off before bed is that some people sleep with their hands tucked beneath them, note the experts over at Brilliant Earth. “Putting your body weight on your hands in this way can slowly put pressure on the ring and cause it to lose shape, risking accent stone loss,” they warn. Moreover, “Large center stones or stones with edges (like square or elongated cuts) can scratch you or your partner at night.”