CL wearers putting sight “at risk”

Over 70% of contact lens wearers have fallen asleep in their lenses, 39% have swum in them and 29% have worn single use lenses more than once, a new report published by Vision Direct has found.

The online contact lens retailer released its findings during National Eye Health Week (NEHW), and highlighted how many people are putting their eye health at risk by failing to follow contact lens guidance.

Sharing insight into its findings about why people fall asleep in their lenses, Vision Direct reported that common reasons included forgetting to take them out (41%), having drunk too much to take them out (27%) and being too tired to take them out (21%).

Many people are also wearing their contact lenses for longer than the recommended time. While Vision Direct reported that three in 10 people (29%) have worn single-use lenses more than once, with men (35%) being more likely than women (25%) to do this, it shared that women are actually more likely to wear lenses for longer than the recommended time (41%) when compared to men (36%).

Commenting on the findings, COO and head optician at Vision Direct, Brendan O'Brien, said: “In reality while some of the data is quite shocking, it is not altogether surprising in my experience. Contact lens quality today is spectacularly better than a decade ago and with this quality comes improved comfort. When your lenses are really comfortable, it becomes a bit more likely for wearers to just forget they haven't removed their lenses.”

Image credit: Flikr/Balázs Mészáros