Correspondence Regarding Contact Lens Bedtime
The contact lenses will be removed shortly, once the person is no longer comfortable enough to move.
To: The Ophthalmological Record From: The Person Who Has Negotiated With Bedtime Because Their Lenses Are Still In Subject: Contact Lens Bedtime , Ongoing Documentation
This correspondence documents the contact lens bedtime situation as it has developed over the past month.
The situation is not new. It is structural.
Standard sequence of events:
At approximately 10:30 PM, the subject becomes horizontal. The contact lenses are still in. This is known. The subject is aware that sleeping in contact lenses is contraindicated. The subject has been aware of this for eleven years.
The subject determines that the lenses will be removed shortly. Shortly is a flexible unit. It expands.
If contact lens bedtime can be fixed later, later retains jurisdiction until the last practical minute.
The negotiation:
Several alternative actions become available at this point: checking one more thing on the phone, finishing the chapter, waiting for the other person to stop reading so the light can go off. Each of these actions is brief. Each extends the duration during which the lenses remain in.
By 11:15 PM, the task of removing the lenses has become a journey. The case is in the bathroom. The bathroom is several meters away. The subject has been horizontal for 45 minutes. The lenses have been in for 16 hours.
The task requires standing. Standing requires deciding to stand. Deciding to stand requires that the current state feel inadequate. The current state feels adequate because the eyes have adjusted.
Resolution:
The lenses are removed. The timing varies between 11:20 PM and 12:40 AM, with a distribution that clusters near midnight. The contact case is on the bathroom counter. The solution is in the cabinet.
The ritual takes four minutes.
Contact Lens Bedtime becomes a task for later that day. Later becomes a repeated checkpoint, so the person monitors the task more than completing it.
The documentation of this matter will not change the matter. It will recur tomorrow.
Regards, The Person With Excellent Lens Case Hygiene and a Flexible Definition of Bedtime