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Eye Exercise for Vertigo

Vertigo is a condition resulting from a disturbance or inflammation of your inner ear, which controls balance. This sends unexpected signals to your brain, confusing your sense of balance and causing feelings of dizziness or spinning. Vertigo can last only a minute or two, or can flare up for weeks. Vertigo has many different causes, including the movement of calcium crystals in your inner ear, minor infections and other, less well-understood conditions. Exercises moving your eyes and head can help your brain acclimate to the signals, relieving the vertigo.

  1. Stationary Exercises

    • Sit straight up in a chair or on the side of your bed. If your vertigo is bad, take a moment for it to subside. Without moving your head, slowly look all the way up and then all the way down. Repeat this movement 20 times, speeding up as you go. Next, slowly look all the way to the left, then to the right 20 times. Finally, straighten your arm and hold one finger up. Focus on the finger and slowly move it toward you, then back away 20 times. You don't need to speed up the last exercise.

    Head Movement

    • Any movement of your head can temporarily aggravate vertigo. This next series of movements involves tilting your head, so it may be quite unpleasant. If you need to pause at any time and regain balance, feel free to do so. Keeping your eyes open, tilt your head down and then up 20 times, speeding up as you go. Then, turn it left and right 20 times. If you feel up to it, try these exercises with your eyes closed.

    More Sitting Exercises

    • Arrange several objects on the floor in front of you for this series of exercises, or have someone put them there for you. For the first exercise, keep your head stationary and shrug your shoulders up and down 20 times. Then, rotate them to the left and right another 20 times. Finally, slowly bend forward and pick up something from the floor, then move up to a seated position. Repeat this movement 20 times. You don't need 20 different objects; instead, you can alternate between picking up a couple different things.

    Advanced exercises

    • As your vertigo lessens, you can try more difficult exercises to help improve your balance. First try standing up and sitting down repeatedly while keeping your eyes open, then try it with your eyes closed. You can try throwing a ball back and forth between your hands at eye level and knee level. This requires your eyes to be able to adjust to the movement of the ball, so when you can do it successfully, it means your vertigo is subsiding. If you feel up to it, try spinning around once in a circle with your eyes open. Then, close your eyes and try again. As you start to feel better, you can try walking back and forth across the room repeatedly, walking up and down an incline, and playing games where you have to stoop, stretch or spin, such as bowling or ping pong. Because these games require you to tilt your head and adjust the focus of your eyes, they will help you to overcome your vertigo.

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