Night Lenses for Swimming & Water Polo

Swimmers get the worst deal of any athlete. Glasses are obviously out. Contact lenses are the thing you are specifically told not to wear in water. Prescription goggles work but only while they are on your face — so you can see the lane rope and the pace clock, and then you take them off and cannot see the coach, the scoreboard, your bag or the way to the car.

And the standard advice is not overcautious. Acanthamoeba, the organism behind the most feared contact lens infection, lives in pools, spa pools, tank water, tap water, rivers and lakes. Trapped under a lens it causes an infection that is painful, slow to treat and capable of permanently damaging sight.

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 swimming

Night lenses answer the whole problem at once, because the correction is in your cornea rather than on it.

• Nothing in your eyes in the water, so none of the infection risk above.
• You see clearly out of the water too — on the blocks, at the wall, on the pool deck, and at prize-giving. Prescription goggles only work while they are on.
• No prescription goggles to buy, and none to re-buy when the prescription changes. Any goggle you like, including a cheap spare in the bag.
• Nothing to fog or leak a lens out of on a tumble turn.
• Water polo in particular — no goggles allowed, contact and water combined. There is no other good answer.

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.

A swimmer's hygiene routine. Night lenses are handled at the bathroom basin at home, with clean dry hands, and never at the pool. Do not take a lens case to the pool at all. If a lens ever does contact water, discard the solution, clean and disinfect it, and tell us.

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.

Young swimmers. Competitive swimming and progressing short-sightedness go together more often than people expect, because swimmers spend a lot of childhood indoors. Night lenses are also one of the evidence-based options for slowing myopia progression, and we measure axial length at every review so you can see whether it is working — see myopia control, or book the free 15-minute myopia chat.

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.

Related: night lenses for sport, surfing, prescription swimming goggles.

Optometrists for night lenses for swimming 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 swimming 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.