Night Lenses (Ortho-K)

I’ve been wearing them for 3-4 years. I was put onto them by Scott Brown, a fellow MTB who is an optician. I was wearing monthly lenses at the time. The problem with MTB and monthlies is they dry out and when mud hits them it compromises them. I was getting tired of how frequently they dried out and how uncomfortable that was. Daily lenses dried out quicker, so they were no better. At work when I operated on people my eyes were getting very dry in theatre. Scott told me about night lenses, which I’d never heard of, which was odd given my profession and also the amount of sports I did. I had entertained the idea of laser eye surgery, but was worried about the cost and permanence of it, so never thought it merited doing. Night lenses sounded like a pretty good resolution without permanence.

It has genuinely revolutionised it. It means I can go for a day of competition with zero distraction of eye dry and have a normal life with no need to consider using contacts or wondering whether they will dry out. Recreationally I do a lot of paddleboarding and don’t have to worry about the option of seeing or falling in and losing my contact lens. They have completely normalised life for me.

I couldn’t recommend them enough. Everyone at some point wearing daytime lenses has had them move in their eye and felt the ‘grate’. The knowledge that you don’t have that in high performance sport is a huge difference. No difference between what you can see and what you interpret. No compromise. Your vision is your own. I’m surprised more people don’t wear them, but that’s mainly because so few people have heard of them yet.