Living Well

Contacts that restore 20/20 vision

You wear these hard contacts at night and then during the day you have 20/20 vision!  They reshape your eye while you are sleeping - this technique is based on an ancient Chinese tradition of putting sandbags on the eyes of people with myopia at night.  It helped shorten the eye and allowed them to see better during the day.

These "new" contacts are made by Ortho-K and while they've been popular in Europe for a while they are just now making their way to the US.  You can read about one reporter's experience in the article The contact lenses that could restore 20/20 vision.

Can you see in the dark?

Humans don't see very well in the dark and sunlight and age can contribute to the problem.  The average 50 year old needs twice as much light at night as a 30 year old according to this New York Times article.  It goes on to say that it takes your eyes half an hour to adjust to the dark but after spending a couple of hours in the sun, it could take your eyes several hours to adjust to the dark!  Here are some tips they gave to see better at night:

• Clean your car's headlights, (Dirty headlights only cast 10% of their light!)
• Clean your windshield inside and out at least once a week,
• Clean your glasses,
• Wear sunglasses and a hat when you are in the sun during the day,
• Don't look directly at on-coming vehicles with headlights on,
• Slow down at night.

No mention of carrots anywhere ...

Photo by orangeacid.