Category: Lenses

I went to sleep and woke up with perfect vision!!

The power of sleep… well the power of Ortho-K to be exact. In a nutshell I went to sleep and woke up with perfect vision! It sounds magical but it’s completely true and I am the proof.

I am short sighted, (myopic) and always have been. My prescription is -4.00 which means a normal functioning day has always needed visual correction with glasses or contact lenses (a trip to get a glass of apple cordial in the night without glasses made for a nasty shock when it turned out to be olive oil, so to say the least I can’t even ‘bumble about’ usefully…) I therefore was a perfect candidate to become the Ortho-K Park Vision buddy to anyone trialling night lenses.

The weight of closed eyelids over hard lenses while sleeping reshapes the cornea to ‘flatten out’ short sighted vision. Depending on the prescription this process can be completed in one night or take a few nights to become completely ‘plano’ which is the equivalent to “no prescription necessary”. These lenses need to be worn every night to continue with corrected daily vision but the results are well worth the first few uncomfortable nights getting used to the lenses... I don't even feel them now!

Now, I love my glasses and have always enjoyed having different frames to complete my outfit as an accessory as well as for great vision. I was very cautious about coming out of eyewear completely, glasses have become part of my life for so many years and a pivotal part of my role at Park Vision. The difference now is that I can choose if I am going to wear my glasses. I still have anti-fatigue glasses for prolonged computer use and a little boost (because my eyes are certainly starting to get a little older and need a touch more help when I’m tired or staring at a screen all day). The lenses I wear are clear at the top but magnified at the bottom so again if I choose to wear them away from the computer or for a meeting I can do so comfortably.

The impact on my life has been huge, apart from obviously just being able to see unaided there have been so many unanticipated small benefits that add up to an increased quality of life... The beauty of knowing if it rains I can just take my glasses off, if I go swimming I don’t have to worry about bumping into everyone or the risk of eye infections from contact lenses and pool water. I am now never unprepared for a class at the gym and I have the freedom on holiday to wear whatever sunglasses I want to without prescription!

Applying my contact lenses Optomap eye scan

Can these lenses get any more magical?? Of course there’s more… Night lenses also exist for children with the power to not only adapt their myopic eyes for clear vision when they wake but also, and more importantly, they slow down the over all progression of Myopia. As a short sighted child grows their eye length grows too. Growth spurts falling hand in hand with a myopic shift. Combine this with the amount of close screen time in an average day and the predictions are as high: 50% of children will have myopia by 2050. That’s incredibly scary but the technology is in place now to implement changes at an early age and ‘catch’ myopia before it not only causes the inconvenience of essential glasses or contact lenses but also increases the chance of serious eye health concerns in later life. This can be a daunting experience but having done it myself I am always available for children to contact and ask questions or just to let me know how they are getting on. The developers of this lens have created a child friendly Bloom app that allows them to send me a message directly and it really does make my day when the little, and not so little ones get in touch.

From a style aspect I love my glasses and would never be completely without them but I also love having the choice… That’s the key part of my experience but for so many others this technology can be monumentally life changing.

Camilla Anderson, Brand and Marketing Manager (and now lens buddy too).