Easy Exercises For Better Eye Health

 

If you wear glasses or contacts, chances are you’ve spent considerable time investigating hacks to improve your eyesight without surgery. Some infomercials and books even claim that faithful adherents may be able to give up their glasses. If this sounds too good to be true, that’s because it probably is.

We know that exercising our muscles is good for our health. What about eye exercises to improve eyesight? While there are no effective eye exercises for refractive errors, eye exercises can help with optimizing visual skills. Vision therapy, a type of physical therapy for the eyes, has been shown to improve certain conditions involving eye alignment and focusing. While being under an eye doctor’s care can provide more guidance on how to use eye exercises, there are some eye muscle exercises that can be done at home. While I wouldn’t expect these eye exercises to improve vision fast, with diligence, they can gradually help with focusing issues and eyestrain.

The coronavirus pandemic brought the extensive WFH (work from home) routine, which has been a big lifestyle change. As the majority of the workforce adapted to working from home, a major part of professional and personal communication went digital, increasing individual screen time, exponentially! But it doesn’t just end with professional or academic zoom calls; with the added free time saved up from traveling to and from work, binge-watching has seen an all-time rise in the past couple of years. Add to it, social media, and you can imagine the collective strain on your poor eyes!  A constant high strain on the eyes makes them dry and itchy; leading to puffiness, redness, and even eye infections.

You can engage in some simple eye exercises that not only take very little time but can also be done anywhere and anytime. These not only help relieve the stress on the eyes but also help in the long run for healthy eyesight and reduce risks of eye disorders and diseases.

1. Look to left and right: Very slowly, look to your left as far as you can without stressing your eyes, and then again slowly move your eyes to look to your right. Inhale and exhale deeply at every shift. After finishing this exercise, close your eyes and relax for a few seconds. This helps to relieve stress on the eyes.

2. Blink for 1 minute: All you have to do is blink your eyes quickly without straining them. You can do this anywhere, daily for 1 minute. This helps in three ways; it greases eyes, cleans them, and gives break from light.

3. Move gaze in circular directions: Move your eyes first in a clockwise direction for five seconds. Then stop and move them in a counterclockwise direction for 5 seconds. Then slowly trace figure 8 horizontally with your eyes. This exercise helps to improve visual perception.

4. Trace geometric patterns: While keeping your eyes open, trace geometric patterns with your eyes like triangles, squares, rectangles, circles, etc. this helps to improve your vision.

Other popular (may need some practice though) exercises that you can try for your eyes are explained below. Remember, do only what comes easy to you, don’t force any movement, and in case of any discomfort, stop immediately.

Pencil pushups

Pencil pushups can help people with convergence insufficiency. A doctor might recommend this exercise as part of vision therapy.

1. Hold a pencil at arm’s length, situated between the eyes.
2. Look at the pencil and try to keep a single image of it while slowly moving it toward the nose.
3. Move the pencil toward the nose until the pencil is no longer a single image.
4. Position the pencil at the closest point where it is still a single image.
5. Repeat 20 times.

Brock string

The Brock string exercise helps improve eye coordination. For this exercise, you will need a long string and some colored beads. It can be done either sitting or standing.

1. Secure one end of the string to a motionless object, or another person can hold it.
2. Hold the other end of the string just below the nose.
3. Place one bead on the string.
4. Look straight at the bead with both eyes open.

If the eyes are working correctly, a person should see the bead and two strings in the shape of an X. If one eye is closed, one of the strings will disappear, which means that the eye is suppressing. If the person sees two beads and two strings, the eyes are not converged at the bead.

Here’s a more animated guide you can follow to perform these exercises with even more ease:

Exercises of any kind always work best when supplemented with a good and healthy diet. For a better vision, it is important to include foods in your diet that have Omega 3 fatty acids, beta carotene, vitamins A, C, and E, and lutein. These are commonly found in foods such as fish like salmon or tuna, carrots, citrus fruits like lemon and oranges, green leafy vegetables like spinach, almonds, and sunflower seeds, and protein-rich foods like eggs and sprouts. Along with this, you should also avoid smoking, as it damages your optic nerves and increases the risk of cataracts.

Here is a list of home remedies I use for a quick eye-relaxation session.

1. Wash your eyes with cold water.
2. Use aloe vera gel. It has a soothing and healing effect. It can be applied under your eyes to reduce puffiness and irritation.
3. Cover your eyes with tea bags (more effective than the cliched cucumbers!). Tea bags work great as a relaxing cold compress for your eyes. After you’ve brewed your tea, put the bags in a clean container in the fridge. Once they’ve cooled, put them on your eyelids to help soothe your eyes and reduce swelling. Make sure you’ve washed your face and hands well and taken out your contacts. And don’t get any tea in your eyes.
4. Take regular screen breaks. After every 2 hours of screen time, rest your eyes for at least 15 mins. While it may not be too practical while you’re at work, try one of the above-mentioned 1-minute exercises while looking away from your screen. This momentary break can work wonders. Trust me!
5. Use a humidifier or an air purifier. Improving your immediate air quality can give your eyes a great pick-me-up.
6. Use eye drops. Over-the-counter or prescription eye drops relieve dry, tired eyes. Use them even when your eyes feel fine to keep them moisturized.