i too am curious about this. in my opinion, youve got a while to go til id suggest leaving them out over night. currently im at a 2 gauge. given, i recently stretched to a 2 gauge, but i took my plug out the other night. im not even sure why i did. i think i was just trying on other jewelery i had (they were also 2 gauge, but i think they were a few mm smaller)
but back to the point. i took out my two gauge for no more then 10-15 minutes, but there was a little bit of resistance putting it back in. (if i took it out for a minute or two there would have been NO resistance.
my opinion? dont take your jewlery out over night until your stretched and heald to bigger than a towo. what size? i dont know yet!