Night protection

For people with moderate dry eye, drops, gels or ointment may be plenty to keep them comfortable and safe overnight. Not so with severe symptoms, especially if complicated by additional issues such as nocturnal lagophthalmos or recurrent erosions.

I've always felt a good recipe for better nights is three-pronged: Warm compress + good lubricant + physical barrier protection overnight. All three of these elements, though, may require a lot of fussing with the details in order to optimize them for your needs. Every one of us is different!

Compresses: For some people, warm compresses are soothing. For others, they are irritating. But if you have MGD and have been told to do compresses, it's for the therapeutic benefit (i.e. loosening up thick oil secretions), not necessarily comfort per se, so it's worth troubleshooting to find the method that you tolerate best. There are a great many products on the market, from small self-heating gel packs to rice baggies to USB powered masks. The conventional hot washcloth is probably the least effective, because they cool down too fast, and people often get them too hot so that they will stay warm longer. - Night is the most practical time to do compresses, because any blurring from the weight/pressure or from oils seeping into the tear film won't matter if you're just going to bed right afterwards, and if heat irritates your skin, the effects will have time to dissipate.

Lubricants: Experiment. Conventional wisdom says the thicker it is, the longer it lasts, not everyone does well on greasy ointments. Sometimes a gel or a drop with a particular formulation will actually work better in the big picture. FreshKote and Oasis Tears Plus are "just drops" but they are very, very popular for overnight use, and with reason.

Physical barrier protection a/k/a goggles, masks, shields, tapes, etc.