14 DAY TRIAL // The World Health Organization estimates that between 800 million and 2.3 billion people worldwide suffer from refractive errors and need some sort of visual aid in order to see properly. For those of us lucky enough to live a busy, modern life in a civilized society, visual aids usually mean either glasses or contact lenses - although when it comes to those of us (myself included) who suffer from myopia (or short-sightedness), neither choice provides 100% comfort.
If you're among the many people who resent having to wear glasses, contact lenses are a great option - provided, of course, that our eyes tolerate them and that we remember to remove them at night or run the risk of developing a serious infection. However, all this could soon be a thing of the past, as scientists have developed a contact lens that is meant to be worn at night and which can provide us with temporary relief from myopia by working to correct our sight overnight - so that we don't have to pack our glasses the following day.
In people who suffer from short-sightedness, the cornea (the transparent front part of the eye) is too curved or the eye itself is too long, which means that when the light passes through it on its way to the retina, the light rays from distant objects focus in front of the retina and not on it, which translates into us not being able to see objects in the distance. The new overnight lenses are made from a hard type of plastic lens (called gas permeable), and work by putting a gentle pressure on the eye, temporarily restoring it to its normal shape.
The reshaping is, of course, temporary, as the cornea will gradually revert back to its original shape. As long as we wear them every night, we can go glasses-free during the day, which is excellent news. There is a twist, however: overnight lenses are not recommended for people suffering from diabetes or eye diseases. They are also only suitable for people with a prescription of -5 or less (which accounts for about 65 % of the total number of short-sighted people).