Almost all Chinese people suffering from short-sightedness can get by without spectacles during the day by wearing corrective contact lenses when they go to sleep, researchers claim.
More than 500 Chinese people with progressive myopia, aged five to 50 , were given lenses to wear when sleeping ina five-year research project in Houston, Texas.
Ninety-seven per cent of them were able to see without spectacles during the day if they wore the lenses every night.
They found their level of short-sightedness did not drop much without glasses.
The lenses bend the cornea, so eyesight improves during the day.
Head of research programmer Dr Tommy Yee said: 'A patient can see obvious results within three weeks. Say a person suffers a myopia of minus 400 degrees. He can have [excellent] eyesight during the day if he wears the lenses at night.
'He can drive, play tennis, work on the computer...without worrying about having spectacles on his nose,' said Dr Yee.