By Jacqui Mayhew 

Contact lenses for dry eyes  worn only while sleeping are now available to address the widely reported comfort problems experienced by short-sighted daytime contact lens wearers. This new treatment option known as orthokeratology - or ortho-k - provides a non-surgical alternative for the increasing numbers of daytime contact lens wearers who find that working in air-conditioned environments and spending most of their time in screen-based activities results in irritable, itchy eyes. This is illustrated by a recent major US survey of some 1,300 contact lens wearers which reported that over 60% experienced either intermittent or severe dry eye problems sufficiently bad to encourage a number to seek alternative ways of addressing their vision problems.

The key problem for daytime contact lens wearers is that typically both work and home environments in today's world are climate-controlled thereby creating lower humidity which has a drying effect on the eyes. This problem is then exacerbated by the amount of work and personal time spent staring at screens - PCs, tablets, smartphones and TVs - which results in blink rates reducing by as much as 80%. And since blinking is one of the most important ways in which eyes are re-moistened, such a reduction inevitably results in the kinds of widespread comfort problems being reported by daytime contact lens wearers. This is why ortho-k corrective contact lenses for dry eyes  offer such a good alternative.

Ortho-k involves wearing small custom-designed lenses only while sleeping. The lenses are made from a highly oxygen-permeable material which allows the eyes to ‘breathe' while asleep and under the mild pressure of closed eyelids these special contact lenses for dry eyes  gently flatten the surface of the eye. This flattening effect lasts for over 24 hours and means that after lens removal each morning, light entering the eyes focuses directly on the retina rather than in front of it thus providing perfect natural vision all day long until the lenses are reinserted at night. So with ortho-k, all work and personal activities require no lenses to be worn at all and hence air-conditioned environments and heavy screen device use is no longer a problem.

Check if you are suitable for overnight ortho-k corrective contact lenses  for dry eyes.