Eye exercises (Do they work?)
Define "work." Is there such thing as an eye exercise to improve vision? Signs point to no. We have very little scientific evidence suggesting that eye exercises improve vision. Eye exercises probably won't help with refractive issues like astigmatism, nearsightedness, farsightedness, and presbyopia.
Can eye exercises improve other eye conditions, though? In certain cases, the answer is yes. Doctors sometimes prescribe vision therapy exercises for people with eyestrain, double vision, and focusing issues. While true vision therapy should be supervised by a doctor, some eye exercises can be done safely from home.
We scoured the Internet for the five best, cheapest, most legit at-home eye exercises. All you need are eyeballs and some fingers or pencils. And even if these eye exercises don't help you, they won't hurt you. Let's do this.
- Use your blinkers
How about a warm-up exercise to start? You may find this helpful for digital eyestrain, which most of us are experiencing to an extent.
Blink several times to restore your tear films and inject oil glands into your eyelids. Try leaving your eyes closed for a few seconds before opening them. If you'd like, you can squeeze your eyes tight to stimulate the oil glands even more.
- The double facepalm
You deserve a break after all that blinking. This "exercise" should reduce eye fatigue and relax the muscles around your eyes. It's like Shavasana for the eyes.
Begin by rubbing your hands together to warm them up. Once they're warm, place your palms on your cheekbones and cup your hands over your eyes. Just be careful not to put any pressure on your eyeballs. Breathe deeply while cupping your eyes for up to five minutes.
- Cross your eyes and dot your t's
Looking for eye exercises for double vision? Vicente Diaz, an ophthalmologist at Yale, believes that this exercise could benefit those of you with double vision or convergence insufficiency.
Hold a pencil or index finger at arm's length and focus on the eraser or fingertip. Slowly move your chosen object toward your nose and try to keep it from doubling. Once you can no longer keep the object from splitting into two images, return it to arm's length and redo the exercise.
- What are you looking at?
Who has two thumbs or pencils and is ready for the next exercise? That'd be you. This one could help you focus on things both near and far by working your focusing system.
Raise your two thumbs or pencils to eye level, one right in front of your face and one about 10 inches from your face. Starting with the closer object, focus on each of them for a few seconds. Then shift your focus to an object in the distance for a few more seconds. Repeat several times.
- The loop de loop
As you can imagine, our final exercise involves a bit of eye movement. This exercise is intended to assist with object tracking, an important visual ability that can be difficult for some.
Step one: Sit in your comfiest chair. Step two: Focus on a spot on the floor that's about 10 feet away. Step three: Trace an imaginary figure 8 with your eyes for 30 seconds before reversing directions and looping de loop for 30 seconds more.
We'd like to thank Dr. Vicente Diaz, healthline.com, and Dr. Colman Kraff of the Kraff Eye Institute for inspiring these eye exercises. Hopefully, your eyes are feeling strong and refreshed.