Vision improvement

[WanderingOak]

I wear glasses. Thick ones with prisms in the lenses. My up-close vision is pretty good, but my distance vision is horrible. I've probably needed them my entire life, but my family couldn't afford them until I was in my late teens. Anyhow, I have seen quite a few books and relatively expensive programs with exercises that supposedly when practiced will improve my vision. I have tried some of the book exercises such as tracing a maze with your eyes, and 'exercising' the eye muscles with controled eye movement and focusing on objects at varying distances. The book is in storage now (as is 90% of what I own) as I am preparing for a move, so I have not been able to practice that portion of my Personal Development for a while. Still, it would be interesting to hear if anybody has had any luck using such vision improvement systems.

[Erki]

I have woren glasses for over 10 years as well. If there's bright sun or some other light then my eyes aren't even that bad but when darkness comes, suddenly everything is so much harder to see.

[gberardi]

I have also wondered about eye improvement. I have two pairs of glasses. One is for normal use, and one is for when I am not in front of the computer. B-)

I've realized that I don't give my eyes too much practice with focusing on things in the distance. I am almost always looking at a distance of about a computer monitor or maybe just across a room.

Basically, I think that if I give my eyes more practice, they won't get so tired doing the same thing everyday. Of course, I don't expect to not need glasses without laser correction, but at the very least I can avoid the following strange effect.

When I was at my sister's graduation ceremony, it was held at a sports arena. I looked across to the other side of the arena, and I saw an exit sign...and it seemed to be wiggling. That is, when I tried to focus on it, I found that it seemed to move, almost like a twinkling star. In fact, when I later had the opportunity to go on a camping trip, there was a full moon, and it also seemed to wiggle in place like the exit sign.

I think that my eyes are just out of practice with focusing on things at a distance. I need to change my lifestyle to give myself some more opportunities to practice looking at things from far away.

Erki: I also love being out in the sun. Things at a distance are so much easier to see and read. It is why I prefer to do road trips during the day rather than at night. It's too easy to get sleepy when in a box of darkness with the drone of the engine.

[tropicality]

A few exercises that I came across have helped me improve my vision. I THINK I came across them at HowStuffWorks - Learn how Everything Works! but I may be incorrect.

One of them is to exercise your focusing muscles, stick your finger out in front of your face (or some other object) and focus on it, then shift your focus to something in the distance, and then back to your finger, keep repeating this, you can use more than 2 focal points (IE your finger, a chair a 10 feet away, and then the wall 50 feet away). After a while your eye muscles will get sore, this is like working out any other muscle of the body.. which kind of proves it is actually doing something!

Another is to exercise your peripheral vision, to do this you can try and take in as much of the background as possible (even while staring at this screen, try and take in as much detail around you using your peripheral), I also recommend doing this while driving.

And to exercise the peripheral muscles, try and look as far as you can in all directions, keep repeating, you can actually feel the workout this gives to the muscles.

I have been using these exercises and have noticed improvements in my ability to focus on objects quicker as well as notice things in my peripheral more easily, especially while driving (hey it could save a life someday).

And another one that seems to actually be improving my eyesight (ie. not having to need my glasses, the 'blurryness' is getting farther away in my vision), and soon I KNOW (watch 'The Secret'.. use the power of your mind to assist you) I won't need glasses anymore: Close your eyes. Then, take a deep breath and tense the muscles in your body, and then slowly release your breath and at the same time loosen your muscles, this is scientifically proven to relax the muscles in your eyes. I usually do this twice at a time in the morning before I get out of bed, midday, and evening when I get into bed.

[Markus74]

You're aware that if your sight gets better that this is because of the exercises. Not because of wishful thinking, right?

Believing it will work may help you stay motivated though until your sights gets indeed better. But your eyes won't magically become better. Only through constant training. It's like that for everything.

[bert eats dirt]

I have heard about a program that allegedly improves vision. Search Google for the Bates Method and see what you can find. There's little/no scientific backing behind it, but it's been around for a while so you'd think a decent amount of people would have found it helpful. At the very least, I've read that it won't do you any harm.