Specialty services

Night Lenses for Football

Football is played in the rain, in the wind and with your head in the way of the ball. Glasses are not realistic and in most competitions not permitted. Day lenses are the usual answer, and they work until the first header in the wet, the first face-first slide, or the eightieth minute in a cold southerly when the lens has dried onto the eye. Winter football in the Waikato is exactly the weather that makes lens wearers miserable.

What night lenses are

Night lenses — also called orthokeratology, ortho-k or overnight contact lenses — are rigid lenses worn only while you sleep. They gently reshape the front surface of the cornea overnight. You take them out in the morning and see clearly through the day with nothing in your eyes and nothing on your face. Nothing is cut and nothing is permanent: stop wearing them and the cornea returns to its own shape over days to a couple of weeks. Full detail, including cost and the safety rules, is on our orthokeratology page.

Why they suit football

Night lenses take the lens out of the equation for the whole ninety minutes.

Nothing to lose heading, sliding or going to ground.
Nothing to dry out in cold wind over a full match.
Nothing to wash out in rain or from a wet ball to the face.
Full peripheral vision for the run you did not see coming.
Goalkeepers especially — judging a high ball against a floodlit or bright sky is a contrast task, and it is much easier without a wet, fogged or shifted lens in the way.

What to expect

The fitting starts with corneal topography — a map of the surface of your eye — because the lens is designed from that map rather than from a guess. You wear trial lenses overnight and come in the next morning, ideally with the lenses still in, so we can see exactly how they sat. Vision usually improves over the first few nights and settles within one to two weeks, which is why we suggest starting in the off-season or well before a tournament rather than the week of it.

Floodlit evening football. If you find lights haloing or streaking at night, say so at the assessment. That can be ordinary astigmatism, an unstable tear film, or — in an established night lens wearer — a sign the lens design needs adjusting. It is usually a straightforward fix, but it should be looked at rather than lived with.

Cost

Two parts: the fitting and care programme ($1,100 for both eyes as a standard fit, $1,350 where a custom design is needed, $1,000 for a single eye) and the lenses themselves, currently $450 per lens and rising to $600. A standard both-eyes fit today is therefore $2,000. Lenses carry a six-month breakage warranty, extendable to twelve months with loss cover for $50 per lens — which most sporting families take. Lenses are usually replaced about once a year. The full breakdown, including the price rise, is on the orthokeratology page.

Junior and youth football. The age group where most short-sightedness starts is also the age group playing most club football. Night lenses correct the vision and are one of the evidence-based options for slowing myopia progression, with axial length measured at every review. See myopia control, or book the free myopia chat for parents.

The water rule, which we do not bend. Night lenses are never rinsed or stored in tap water, tank water, bottled water, pool water or river water — only in the solution we prescribe — and they are out of the eyes before swimming, showering and spa pools. Acanthamoeba, the organism behind the most feared contact lens infection, lives in all of those. Our partner optometrist Jagrut Lallu is a co-author on a published case report of orthokeratology-related Acanthamoeba keratitis in a 13-year-old, so we would rather tell you about it plainly at the start than not at all. Nearly all of that risk is preventable with habits we can teach in a single appointment.

Is it right for you?

Night lenses work well for short-sightedness with up to a moderate amount of astigmatism. They are not for everyone: high prescriptions can sit outside the fitting range, significant irregular astigmatism is usually better served by a different specialty lens, active dry eye or lid disease needs treating first, and the nightly hygiene routine is not optional. We tell you which group you are in after the topography, not before it — and if a different option would serve you better, we will say so.

Optometrists for night lenses for football at Rose Optometry

You will be seen by one of seven therapeutically qualified optometrists — all University of Auckland graduates, all able to prescribe eye medication where it is needed, and all of whom examine patients from six weeks of age. Night lenses for football is part of their clinical practice.

Jagrut Lallu — Partner Optometrist · BOptom (Hons), MSc Specialty Lenses (Hons), FIAOMC
Jacqueline Rowe — Partner Optometrist · BSc, BOptom
Emilie Lawson — BOptom (Hons) · Accredited Glaucoma Prescriber · ACO Certificate in Advanced Contact Lenses
Jason Shen — BOptom (Hons)
Jessica Wood — BOptom (Hons) · Clinical Research Optometrist, New Zealand Eye Research Centre
Stella Wong — BOptom (Hons)
Anjali Hira — BOptom (Hons)

Book a free night lens chat

The quickest way to find out whether night lenses suit your eyes and your sport is a free 15-minute chat. No cost, no obligation.

New patient — book a comprehensive eye examination (45 minutes, includes imaging and full pretest), $129 for adults, $79 for children and school students.
Already a Rose patient — book your eye examination here.
Want to talk about night lenses first? — book a free 15-minute Ortho-K chat, no cost and no obligation.
Ready to be fitted — new ortho-k / night lens fit (30 minutes).

Or call 07 847 3195, or get in touch. Rose Optometry, 38 Lake Road, Frankton, Hamilton. 07 847 3195

Reviewed by Jagrut Lallu — BOptom (Hons), MSc Specialty Lenses (Hons), FIAOMC, Therapeutic Optometrist & Contact Lens Specialist, Partner, Rose Optometry. Last reviewed 19 September 2026.