About a year!
What were you wearing before night lenses?
I was wearing a combination of glasses first thing in the morning and before I went to bed as well as daily disposable lenses all in between.
Why did you decide to switch over to night lenses?
I just thought it would be simpler. I hate the feeling of not being able to see when I get up in the night or when I wake up in the morning. I also hate being able to see the blur around the edge of the glasses, so I thought it would be simpler in that point of view, but I also hated when you got something in your contact lens, causing yourself to have to take it out during the day or when you lose one and have to spend the day without one.
Ok, so it’s a lot more fiddly wearing day lenses?
Absolutely.
How did night lenses change your life?
I think they have made my life much simpler. Like I said it was fiddly having contact lenses that I wore during the day. I had to always move ahead, I had to always have spares with me, I couldn’t do anything last minute and If I travelled, I had to make sure that I had enough of everything. Whereas now with night lenses, as long as I’ve got the night lenses overnight, then I’m set!
What is the best thing about wearing night lenses?
I think it’s the freedom. It’s the freedom to be able to do what you need to do and not worry about how you’re gonna see.
Do you think that you’ll ever switch back to wearing glasses in the morning and daytime daily disposable contact lenses?
No, I don’t think so. I think it was just too much of a faf!
It’s great to hear all the positivity that’s coming out of that. Why would you recommend night lenses to other patients and people?
I’ve recommended it to friends and family already. I just think it makes life so much simpler to be able to see when you wake up in the morning. If I wake up in the night, I can see without looking for my glasses. For me it’s just life changing!
You’re into sports and an active lifestyle, aren’t you? So in what way have night lenses helped you?
So I like to do a lot of running and I like to travel around the world to run marathons. For me it means that I don’t have to take spare contact lenses if I’m going for a long run or a race. I don’t have to take a whole batch of lenses if I’m travelling. But it also means that I can run and not worry about rubbing my eyes or getting sweat in my eyes because I can see!
Brilliant! Is there anything else you’d like to add?
I just think it also makes my eyes much more comfortable. So, when I wore my lenses a lot, my eyes would be dry during the day and my eyes would get tired, but I don’t have that now.
You chose night lenses over other modes of correction including laser eye surgery. Why wasn’t laser eye surgery an option?
I think it was fear. I was and still am scared that they might make a mistake, but I also really hate it when you flip my eyelid over, but you know this!! So, the idea of staying still whilst they lasered my eye, it just didn’t appeal. I thought it was much better to try this first.
We all know night lenses are really safe, you’ve never had any issues: no red eye, no dry eyes?
No!
Your eyes have been nice, clear and comfortable every time you’ve come in haven’t they?
Yea absolutely! You know sometimes when the daily disposable lenses get kind of lost around the back of the eye and you can’t get them out? You don’t get that with these (night lenses).