Nearsighted Eye Exercises

Nearsightedness, known in medical circles as myopia, is a vision defect in which you see things at a distance as blurry, while near objects are clear and in focus. Most often the cause of nearsightedness is that your eyeball or the cornea or lens of the eye is misshaped, so the light coming into the eye is focused a little bit in front of the retina, the back part of the eye that turns light and images into nerve impulses for the brain.

Do They Work?

• Eye exercises have been proposed as a cure since 1891, when Dr. William Bates published his exercise method for correcting vision problems.

  In 2004, the American Academy of Ophthalmology evaluated a number of programs of eye exercises, biofeedback, muscle relaxation and eye massage. As quoted on the All About Vision website, it concluded, “No evidence was found that visual training has any effect on the progression of myopia. No evidence was found that visual training improves visual function for patients with hyperopia (farsightedness) or astigmatism. No evidence was found that visual training improves vision lost through disease processes.”

  Exercising your eyes is unlikely to change the basic shape of your eyeball or of the cornea to change the way light is refracted and projected onto the retina, which is how eye surgery such as Lasik works. The exercises are designed to strengthen the muscles that control the shape of the lens. If those muscles are weak, the exercises could help improve your vision. But controlled studies have not shown the exercises to improve people's vision much, if at all.

Exercises

• On the other hand, the exercises suggested are not likely to do any harm, and some people believe they have benefited from using them. There area few general rules that will help make sure you do not make things worse, at the very least. Do the eye exercises in soft light without glare; make certain any of the things you are focusing on are well-lit. Be gentle, whether closing your eyes or applying pressure, and don’t exercise your eyes in a way that strains them or causes discomfort. Since you are exercising muscles, let them rest afterward, just as you would any other muscles you exercise.

  Websites offering directions for eye exercises, such as Eye Exercises for Good Vision.com, recommend starting out with relaxation exercises, like deep breathing and visualizing your lungs in action, before starting the specific eye-training exercises. One simple exercise, which the practitioners suggest will help make the lens more flexible, is to hang a ball from your ceiling about chest high. Have someone pull the ball as far back as possible and let go, so it swings toward you (or you can launch it yourself), then move out of its way without moving your feet, trying to keep the ball in focus throughout.

  Another exercise in shifting focus starts by your holding a pencil or your finger about 6 inches in front of the tip of your nose and focus on it for a count of five. Then, focus on an object about 20 feet away for another five-count. They recommend repeating this 40 times. After that they recommend “palming” your eyes for at least two minutes by closing your eyes and gently covering them with your palms cupped, so they are not coming into contact with your eyelids. Breathe slowly and deeply to help relax.

  Several more exercises are detailed on a wealth of websites, many with testimonials from satisfied customers attesting to their benefits. To find them, search “eye exercises for myopia” or similar terms.