Objective To investigate the habits of eye rubbing and sleeping posture of patients with keratoconus(KC)and analyze the correlation of the onset and severity of KC with eye rubbing and sleeping posture.Methods In this retrospective case-control study,KC patients who received diagnosis and treatment in the Eye Hospital of Shandong First Medical University from January 2018 to June 2022 were collected as the KC group,and myopia patients with matching ages and sexes who visited our hospital from February to June 2022 were recruited as the control group.All patients were inves-tigated by questionnaire and the details of eye rubbing,sleeping posture and related habits were recorded.According to the severity of the disease(corneal curvature),KC patients were divided into different stages,and the eye rubbing and sleep-ing posture of KC patients in different stages were compared.Results In this study,406 KC patients and 394 myopia pa-tients were included.It was found that 67.98％of KC patients and 24.87％of myopia patients rubbed their eyes,with a sig-nificant difference(P＜0.001);45.32％of KC patients and 24.87％of myopia patients were accustomed to sleeping on their side or stomach,with a significant difference(P＜0.001).The multivariate binary logistic regression analysis indica-ted that the following variables showed significant differences:patients with eyes at the later stages(steeper eyes)were more likely to rub eyes[odds ratio(OR)=3.547,95％CI:2.02-6.24,P＜0.001],sleep on side or stomach(OR=10.725,95％CI:5.77-19.94,P＜0.001),and turn head to the steeper eye when sleeping(OR=12.171,95％CI:7.23-20.49,P＜0.001).The statistical analysis demonstrated that the proportion of KC patients at the IV stage who were habitu-ated to rub their steeper eyes and turn their heads to the steeper eyes when sleeping was significantly higher than that of pa-tients at stages Ⅰ to Ⅲ(all P＜0.001).Conclusion Eye rubbing and sleeping on the side or stomach are risk factors for the onset of KC and are related to the severity of the disease.