Eye exercises, which involve exercising your eye muscles, may improve vision and delay the need for glasses or contacts in some people. It will, however, not correct underlying conditions that affect eyesight, includingmyopia(nearsightedness),farsightedness, andastigmatism(an imperfection in the eye structure that causes blurry vision).
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Do Eye Exercises Work?
Eye exercises can be beneficial for a number of eye problems, including:
The Eye Lens' Function and Structure
Because the physical anatomy of your eye can determine how you see, exercising eye muscles will not stop the most common issues that create a need for glasses or contact lenses such as:
What Is Nearsightedness?
Eye Exercises to Try
The 20-20-20 rule
One of the most widely known eye exercises is the 20-20-20 rule. If you sit at your computer or do close-up work all day, take a quick eye break every 20 minutes. During this time, look away from your computer or paperwork for 20 seconds and gaze at an object that is at least 20 feet away. Since the focusing muscle inside the eye and the muscles that control eye alignment have to work harder when focusing on near objects, this quick-and-easy exercise eases eye strain. This also tends to stimulate blinking, which can reduce dry eye symptoms associated with prolonged near work.
Other exercises have been referred to as yoga for eyes because, like yoga for the body, they rest overused muscles, reduce tension, and strengthen muscles.
A few yoga-like exercises for the eyes from Yoga International include:
You can also try this very simple and relatively quick eye exercise:
When to Contact Your DoctorEven though eye strain in any form is temporary, let your eye care doctor know if it does not go away or if it gets worse.
When to Contact Your Doctor
Even though eye strain in any form is temporary, let your eye care doctor know if it does not go away or if it gets worse.
Vision Therapy
The goal of vision therapy is to stimulate the communication between the brain and eyes to achieve clear and comfortable vision. Certain vision problems, such as amblyopia (lazy eye) and strabismus (crossed eyes), as well as dynamic visual skills for sports, can be improved with doctor-supervised vision therapy.
Through vision therapy, optometrists try to help children and adults develop or improve visual skills, abilities, and efficiency, and change visual processing or interpretation of visual information. An optometrist-guided vision therapy program will usually have two parts: supervised in-office exercises and reinforcement exercises at home. It could take weeks or months to achieve results. Some optometrists add certain training glasses with special lenses or filters.
Convergency Insufficiency
Although doctor-supervised vision therapy is recognized as safe and effective for certain eye issues, vision therapy should not be expected to eliminate your need for vision correction with glasses or contacts.
The 8 Best Places to Buy Glasses Online
Orthoptics
Lazy Eye Exercises to Correct Amblyopia
A Word From Verywell Health
If you are having trouble seeing, your should make an appointment with an eye care professional instead of starting eye exercises on your own. Eye exercises may alleviate fatigue in your eyes, but they can’t correct your vision. An optometrist or ophthalmologist has the expertise to determine if your condition requires corrective lenses or could benefit from eye exercises.
8 SourcesVerywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.All About Vision.Do Eye Exercises Improve Vision?Harvard Health Publishing.The lowdown on eye exercises.American Macular Degeneration Foundation.What is Macular Degeneration?Yoga International.4 Yoga Exercises for Eye Strain.National Institutes for Health division of Occupational Health and Safety.Health And Wellness: Exercises and Stretches.American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus.Vision Therapy.Optometrists network.Convergence Insufficiency.American Association of Certified Orthoptists.What is Orthoptics/Orthoptist?
8 Sources
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.All About Vision.Do Eye Exercises Improve Vision?Harvard Health Publishing.The lowdown on eye exercises.American Macular Degeneration Foundation.What is Macular Degeneration?Yoga International.4 Yoga Exercises for Eye Strain.National Institutes for Health division of Occupational Health and Safety.Health And Wellness: Exercises and Stretches.American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus.Vision Therapy.Optometrists network.Convergence Insufficiency.American Association of Certified Orthoptists.What is Orthoptics/Orthoptist?
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
All About Vision.Do Eye Exercises Improve Vision?Harvard Health Publishing.The lowdown on eye exercises.American Macular Degeneration Foundation.What is Macular Degeneration?Yoga International.4 Yoga Exercises for Eye Strain.National Institutes for Health division of Occupational Health and Safety.Health And Wellness: Exercises and Stretches.American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus.Vision Therapy.Optometrists network.Convergence Insufficiency.American Association of Certified Orthoptists.What is Orthoptics/Orthoptist?
All About Vision.Do Eye Exercises Improve Vision?
Harvard Health Publishing.The lowdown on eye exercises.
American Macular Degeneration Foundation.What is Macular Degeneration?
Yoga International.4 Yoga Exercises for Eye Strain.
National Institutes for Health division of Occupational Health and Safety.Health And Wellness: Exercises and Stretches.
American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus.Vision Therapy.
Optometrists network.Convergence Insufficiency.
American Association of Certified Orthoptists.What is Orthoptics/Orthoptist?
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