HOUSTON – Brother and sister Justin and Aileen Liang are world champion jump rope athletes, and they say they couldn't compete with glasses on.
They also don't like to jump with contacts in, and even though they have poor eyesight, they jump with no vision correction at all, thanks to special sleeping contacts.
"They let me move around especially when I'm doing sports. I don't have to worry about getting dust in my eye or if I'm swimming I can just swim freely,” Justin Liang said.
Justin has been sleeping in these new contacts overnight for about four years. Aileen Liang has used them for just a few months. Neither of them has to wear anything during the day.
“Before I also wore contacts a little bit and they were like a little bit uncomfortable and they started drying up before like the end of the day,” Aileen Liang said.
It goes against the number one rule of contacts (which normally advises you against sleeping in them) but here's how these work:
While you are asleep, the lenses gently reshape the cornea so you can see clearly the following day after you remove the lenses when you wake up.
You put them back in at the end of the day, before bed.
"They're made out of a permeable hard contact. Basically, it lets the gas through so your eyes don't get too dry at night. You just put them in and you go to sleep and you wake up and you take them out and your vision is good to go,” Justin Liang explained.
Their mom said this costs about $1,000 per child, per year. She says it's been worth it for them since they're so competitive in sports. This helps them focus on the task instead of their vision.