Eye Exercises for Esophoria

Esophoria is an eye illness that is caused by an inward deviation of the eye. This usually happens because there is an issue with the extra-ocular muscles, which are the six muscles that control all the movements of a human eye. The extra-ocular muscles' actions depend on where the eye is positioned at the time of the muscle contractions.

Causes of Esophoria

• There are three causes of Esophoria: refractive errors, divergence insufficiency and convergence excess. These can be due to nerve, muscle, congenital or mechanical anomalies.

  Refractive errors are caused by an incorrect focus of light by the eye and are the reason for a frequent reduction in visual acuity. Divergence insufficiency is when a person cannot tell the difference between near vision and far vision. Convergence excess or strabismus is when the eyes do not point in the same direction.

Eye Exercises for Esophoria

• Please see an optometrist before beginning any eye exercise program. For people who stare at computers all day, some eye-focusing exercises will help to alleviate problems of esophoria and strengthen the eye muscles.

  Go outside and stare down a straight street. First look at something that is three feet in front of you and focus on it for 30 seconds until you see it clearly. Next look about 30 feet down the street (three car lengths), pick another object and focus for 30 seconds until you see it clearly. Then look a few blocks down the street and do the same thing. Next look a few traffic lights down. Keep moving farther and farther, until you reach a point where you can no longer focus clearly on an object. Do this once a day.

  To help with looking at objects that are near you, take a piece of paper and draw a ball, cube or triangle shape. Hold the paper about two feet in front of you and focus on it for about one minute. You will see the object shrink, grow, move away and jump several times but continue to focus on it until it has returned to its original position. Repeat a second time during the day.

  To see if your eye muscles have improved, you can hold your head at a certain level and move your eyes up and then in a circle. If you have strong eye muscles, than there should be no pain associated with these movements. Repeat the eye circles 10 times.