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Practitioner home > ECP Viewpoints℠ > Visual Comfort: A Key Factor in Contact Lens Wearing Success

Visual Comfort: A Key Factor in Contact Lens Wearing Success

October 07, 2025
a high-tech, close-up picture of a woman's eye

From the first fit to the follow up and beyond, comfort plays an integral role in whether a patient will achieve success as a contact lens wearer.1,2 Just consider, about one in four new contact lens wearers drop out within the first year,2 with roughly one-third citing discomfort as the number one reason why they walk away from contact lenses.2 Comfort is also important to existing wearers who attribute discomfort as a prime factor for discontinuing wear.1 

With comfort playing such an important role for contact lens wearers, it’s no surprise that it has been a central point of studies, with much focus spent on how contact lenses interact with the ocular surface and tear film.3 Physical comfort is, of course, important in contact lens wear. But ocular surface factors alone represent just one piece of the complete contact lens comfort picture.3 

Visual comfort is vital in a patient’s daily life and represents an equally important part of their contact lens wearing experience.4-9 Unlike physical comfort, visual comfort has been linked to visual stimulus from environmental factors and a patient’s daily activities, many of which may involve spending time on screens for work, school, and leisure.10,11

Asthenopia: Two Distinct Paths of Contact Lens Comfort 

A study by Sheedy et al. looked at whether all asthenopia was the same or whether symptoms could be attributed to more than one source.12 From their research, Sheedy and his team determined that asthenopia was caused by two distinct mechanisms and symptom sets: 

  • Ocular discomfort: Caused by a disruption of the ocular surface with symptoms such as burning, irritation, dryness, or tearing.
  • Visual discomfort: Caused by a strain of the visual system with symptoms including eye strain, headache, double vision, and blur. 

While these two groups originate from different sources, they may be difficult to differentiate.3 And treatment focused on the wrong source of discomfort can lead to unresolved issues and drop out.3

Contact Lens Technology to Help Combat Asthenopia 

young professional woman using multiple digital devices

CooperVision has developed two unique contact lens designs and material technologies that, in combination, may help address asthenopia caused by both internal and external factors in digital devices users. 

To help address eye dryness, Aquaform® Technology allows MyDay Energys® and Biofinity Energys® contact lenses to deliver a high level of oxygen combined with high moisture retention and optimal modulus to help support a healthy and comfortable lens wearing experience—even during times of reduced blinking such as when using digital devices.13

To help combat eye tiredness, CooperVision developed DigitalBoost™ Technology,*13,14 found in both MyDay Energys® and Biofinity Energys®. This unique single vision aspheric lens design delivers a +0.3D boost, which may help reduce ciliary muscle stress from overworked muscles during digital device use.*14

DigitalBoost™ Technology Positively Influences Visual Comfort in Wearers14,15

A study by Kajita et al. compared changes in accommodative micro-fluctuations (AMF), which are small dioptric changes that occur during accommodation.14 Participants wore either a spherical (Biofinity®) or aspheric (Biofinity Energys®) silicone hydrogel lens. The research team reported that the AMF response to a 20-minute reading task differed significantly between the two groups, with the aspheric lens design resulting in a much smaller change in AMF compared to the spherical lens design.14

Talk to Every Patient About Visual Comfort 

Eye care professionals should place as much focus on evaluating the visual system as the ocular surface to help reduce symptoms. Today, eye care professionals can turn to innovative, highly effective evidence-based designed treatments that can help with digital device related symptoms. 

Start having the visual comfort conversation with every patient. Routinely ask your patients about digital device use and provide them innovative solutions by fitting them in MyDay Energys® and Biofinity Energys®.

Read more about visual comfort’s role in contact lens wearing success in this full article and discover more about MyDay Energys® and Biofinity Energys®.

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Also of Interest:

* Based on a statistically significant difference of the mean change in Accommodative Microfluctuations and when compared to a lens without DigitalBoost™ after reading on an iPhone 5 for 20 minutes held at a distance of 25 cm. Study conducted with Biofinity Energys and sphere.

1. Pucker, A. A Review of Contact Lens Dropout; Clinical Optometry 2020:12 85–94.

 2. Sulley A, Young G, Hunt C, McCready S, Targett MT, Craven R. Retention Rates in New Contact Lens Wearers. Eye Contact Lens. 2018 Sep;44 Suppl 1:S273-S282.

 3. Rueff EM. Visual discomfort and contact lens wear: A review. Cont Lens Anterior Eye. Aug 2023;46(4):101872. doi:10.1016/j.clae.2023.101872. 

4. Diec J, Naduvilath T, Tilia D, Bakaraju RC. The Relationship Between Vision and Comfort in Contact Lens Wear. Eye Contact Lens. May 1, 2021;47(5):271-276. doi:10.1097/icl.0000000000000743. 

5. Guthrie S, Ng A, Woods J, Vega J, Orsborn G, Jones L. Exploring the factors which impact overall satisfaction with single vision contact lenses. Cont Lens Anterior Eye. Oct 2022;45(5):101579. doi:10.1016/j.clae.2022.101579. 

6. Kandel H. Quality-of-life outcomes of long-term contact lens wear: A systematic review. Cont Lens Anterior Eye. Feb 2022;45(1):101521. doi:10.1016/j.clae.2021.101521.

 7. Kazemi R, Choobineh A, Taheri S, Rastipishe P. Comparing task performance, visual comfort and alertness under different lighting sources: an experimental study. Excli j. 2018;17:1018-1029. doi:10.17179/excli2018-1676. 

8. Walline JJ, Jones LA, Sinnott L, et al. Randomized trial of the effect of contact lens wear on self-perception in children. Optom Vis Sci. Mar 2009;86(3):222-32. doi:10.1097/OPX.0b013e3181971985. 

9. Coates ZA. Contact Lens, Academics, and Self-Perception (CLASP) Study: Study Design and Initial Results. The Ohio State. 2019. 

10. Sagawa K. Visual comfort to colored images evaluated by saturation distributionVisual comfort to colored images evaluated by saturation distribution. Color Res Appl. 1999;24:313-321. 

11. CVI data on file 2023. US online survey: N=750, Vision corrected patients. US Adults Ages 18-44 who wear corrective spectacles and/or contact lenses. 52% say the spend 6 hours or more.

12. Sheedy JE, Hayes JN, Engle J. Is all asthenopia the same? Optom Vis Sci. Nov 2003;80(11):732-9. doi:10.1097/00006324-200311000-00008.

13. CVI data on file, 2024. 

14. Kajita M et al. Changes in accommodative micro-fluctuations after wearing contact lenses of different optical designs. CLAE 2020; 43(5): 493-496. 

15. Montani G et al. Effects of different contact lens design on accommodative function and eyestrain symptoms of young adult subjects after VDT use. BCLA 2021 paper presentation. 

18090 10/2025