Eye Exercises for Nearsightedness

Eye Exercises for Nearsightedness

Eye Exercises for Nearsightedness

Nearsightedness or myopia is a condition that many people will experience during their lifetime. The inability to focus on objects far away is sometimes a result of the natural aging process of your body which weakens your eye muscles. But it can also be spurred by excessive screen time and not exercising your eye muscles regularly.

According to recent studies, almost half the world’s population will be myopic by 2050. That’s a lot of people! Luckily, nearsightedness can be rectified with a number of different methods.

The most common methods are glasses and contact lenses and in some cases, people even resort to eye surgery to fix the problem. However, a lot of people dismiss the idea of doing eye exercises for nearsightedness!

Remember that your eyes are a muscle and that muscles need to be worked regularly to stay in good condition. Your eyes can really benefit from doing some regular exercises. The vision drills explained in this article can be done in the comfort of your own home and will really help to improve your vision.

Just How Helpful Can Eye Exercises for Nearsightedness Be?

There are many different causes of myopia and, if it’s caused by visual fatigue, eye exercises can be very helpful for you. If myopia is either genetic or hereditary, eye exercises are going to be less effective. However, it doesn’t necessarily mean that exercises won’t have any benefit for your vision.

Eye exercises can help in a few different ways:

  • Increase eye function and help you focus better
  • Reduce eyestrain
  • Reduce sensitivity to light
  • Increase or strengthen your eyes
  • Help with other aspects of vision such as hand-eye coordination, depth perception, peripheral vision, etc.

Are Eye Exercises’ Effectiveness Guaranteed?

When myopia is caused or heavily influenced by genetics and not visual fatigue, the exercises won’t be completely effective. But they can help in other instances as outlined above and, in some cases, they can also help slow down the effects of myopia over time.

Your lifestyle will also play a big role in the effectiveness of exercises. If you continue to have poor visual habits, like looking at a computer screen for prolonged periods with no breaks, then the effectiveness will also be reduced.

Moreover, the amount of nutrients you are getting in your diet might also cause a diminished effect on your vision. Your eyes, just like any other part of your body will really benefit from a healthy lifestyle where you get the right amount of vitamins and minerals in your diet. If you are not getting these vitamins and minerals, then your eyesight will deteriorate much faster.

Eye Exercises for Nearsightedness

Here is a range of different exercises to combat nearsightedness. Make sure that you do these tasks every day to get the maximum benefit from them. And don’t forget, you want to complete each exercise fully before moving on to the next and you’ll also want to ensure that you can complete the entire eye regime without being interrupted.

Eye-Finger Exercise

This exercise will help you to focus on objects that are far away from you. You’ll need to stand in the middle of the room and keep your back straight. Face a picture on the wall and hold your index finger a couple of inches away from your nose. Focus on your fingertip and ensure that your eyes are fully focused before moving on to the next step.

Now you should quickly move your vision to the picture of the wall. At first, the image will be distorted. Keep looking until your eyes have correctly focused on the picture. As you get better at it, increase the distance between yourself and the image.

Focus Exercise

For this exercise, you’ll need to be sitting down and you will also need a pencil. Hold the pencil about six inches away from the tip of your nose. Don’t stare at the pencil, instead quickly glance at it and then change your vision to an object which is on the opposite side of the room. Do this for a few seconds and then go back to the pencil for a few seconds.

Repeat this process 10 times and do it every day. As your eyesight starts to get better, start focusing on objects that are further away from you.

Another Pencil Exercise

Here you’ll again need to be sitting down. This time, hold the pencil away from your eyes until it gets to the point where it starts to double in your vision. Hold it just before this point. Imagine that there is a transparent tic-tac-toe board just in front of you.

Now move the pencil and touch each of the imaginary squares and bring the pencil back to the original position. As you’re moving the pencil, make sure that you track its movement with your eyes.

Again, perform this exercise at least once a day and you should start to notice a gradual improvement in your vision.

Room Scanning

Find a comfortable chair to sit in and make sure that you sit somewhere where there are a lot of objects to look at. Maybe this could be in your living room or your garden. Now start at one side and slowly scan everything in the room. Look at each object in great detail, make sure that you outline the entire object, then move on to the next one.

For this exercise to work, you will want to look at things in a slow and steady motion. This will help you to focus on things that are both close to you and far away from you.

Benefits of Eye Exercises

If you stick to these exercises you should start to notice the benefits quite quickly. If you want to further improve your vision, you can add more eye exercises to your repertoire. Also, it’s a good idea to start taking vision-enhancing vitamins to further improve your nearsightedness. Nearsightedness may seem like an unimprovable diagnosis, but with a disciplined eye exercise regimen, you can certainly improve your vision!

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Join or Start the Discussion

  1. Thank you for sharing this useful information! Regularly exercising your eye muscles may actually help in improving your vision. It even helps in treating vision-related headaches, especially among people who have untreated nearsightedness.

  2. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen sahmid patel (real American) says:

    what country am i in, india?

  3. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen HD says:

    Please add videos for these exercises to follow them perfectly.

  4. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen Irwin says:

    The eye-finger exercise doesn’t make much sense to me. I’ve tried it, and the picture doesn’t really get any clearer, if it is getting clearer, then it’s barely noticeable. Some tips plz? Also, I can’t do it in the middle of the room since I can’t see any picture clearly no matter what if I stand in the middle of the room.

  5. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen Punit Agarwala says:

    This pencil exercise with glass or without glasses?

  6. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen Eyesight says:

    Should we do these with glasses or without glasses? My vision is really weak (about -3.5) and thus I can hardly see objects around me properly without specs. Please reply fast.

  7. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen Isabela says:

    You guys Dr.Mercola also wrote an article (and a made a video) about improving eye health through diet. There is a list of foods rich in nutrients that improve the function of your macula. Check it out

    https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2016/09/19/foods-improve-vision.aspx

  8. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen BBL says:

    Can these excercise be done by kids of 5 years age with myopia? We are constantly reading that straining the eyes will worsen the vision. My daughter is having -2.5 and -2.25 for her right and left eye respectively. Also should the prescription glasses be worn while doing these exercises. Appreciate your response.
    Thanks

  9. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen Yab says:

    Is it recommended that we do all the exercises or a couple and for how long should we do each exercise

  10. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen Steve says:

    Is it done with or without glasses?

  11. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen Nelle says:

    Hey. Can I use this exercise even if only my right eye is having difficulty focusing on far objects? If so, is it required to do this exercise with only my right eye open?

  12. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen fix it says:

    How often a day do I do these eye exercises like how many times a day

  13. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen MIT says:

    Should I do exercise with glasses or without glasses?

  14. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen Gokul says:

    Can permanent miopia be treated through these exercises

  15. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen Ronald K says:

    Most of you people are questioning”WILL IT WORK?”. I’d say at least try it .find time to do these exercise daily. Eating fruits rich in vitamin A will help along with doing your exercises. Good luck and have a good day and do until you succeed.

  16. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen Anonymous says:

    Every one here is with the problem , is any one here who have tried that exercise and got correct their vision.

  17. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen rishi raj says:

    does not wearing spectacles increase the chances of worsting the eyes condition ?.

  18. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen Pratap says:

    Hi,
    I have to remove my spectacles for this exercise, right?

  19. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen prasad says:

    I have -0.50 right eye I want to correct plz tell me how because I want join air force and they don’t except myopic eye

  20. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen i need help says:

    Hey I just got glasses and my doc says its impossible to correct my vision expect with surgery ,but i dont rlly believe them.. I have -o.25 on right and -1 on left eye..SHould i do the exercies while wearing glasses or without… ALSO hOW many times a day should i do the exercies and for how long .. ? thx very much 🙂

  21. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen Ell says:

    On average, how long should it take for your vision to improve?

  22. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen Alex says:

    Can I do these with glasses? I am -4 and my glasses prescription is -3.25

  23. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen Akash Kumar says:

    How can improve my myopic eye of 5.5 D ??

  24. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen nikhil says:

    Please tell how much time will it take to recover a power of lens of -0.75 I trust you plz tell me.

  25. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen Nidhi says:

    Am I supposed to wear glasses after performing the exercise ?

  26. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen Anonymous says:

    For the step that is needed to extend the pencil to the limit of your site without doubling it, I can’t reach that far!

  27. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen Anonymous says:

    What is your experience with doing some of these with just one eye at time. Could this quicken the process?

  28. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen Sarah says:

    On the second Pencil Excercise (Titled: Another Pencil Excercise) are you intended to hold the pencil close to your face till it doubles or away from your face till it somehow doubles? Because my arms are not long enough to hold the pencil away from my face for the pencil to double in my vision. I hope I’m not doing it incorrectly, I really want to improve my vision.

  29. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen masi says:

    i have wave lines in fornt of my eyes anybody help me the solution for this

  30. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen mary joy says:

    thank u…..i hope this will help my problem in my eye…

  31. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen Amelia says:

    So, are we supposed to do all of the excercises, or can we just do which ever ones we want?

  32. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen Anonymous says:

    Thanks for posting this!

  33. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen thilak raj says:

    Hey I have a power of -4.5 in both eyes so I am daily eating greeny curry leaves and its juice. I am also practicing your exercises. In how many days r months would I reduce my power to normal

  34. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen Manu says:

    Sir,i am suffering with mypia for5yers.now i am 19yersold.my left point is2.75&right 2.25. What shall i do sir? Eye excersize is completely cure this?pls reply

  35. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen Harsh says:

    Will wearing low numbers glasses than ur actual numbers help ur eyesight?
    Is there any disadvantage in doing so?
    Help me with it

  36. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen Ero says:

    Do i have to wear the glasses while doing these exercise? Reply fast..

  37. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen Hitesh behera says:

    Sir, the problem of miopia is heavier in me(left -4.02 and right -3.75), so i want to fix it as much as i can. so, will these exersices work on me effectively? and how can i fix it faster? help!

  38. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen Anonymous says:

    We need to do this with or without lense?

  39. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen devakumar says:

    should i where the glasses while i am doing these excersise or without it.
    i cannot see far objects with a power of 0.5.

  40. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen Sahil says:

    Sir, my left eye has grown weak while the other one is completely fine. i am not able to focus on object which are not near me with my left eye. how can i improve this. Also should i practice these exercise with both the eyes open or just the weak eye because i can clearly see with both the eyes open. Please send back to me

  41. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen samiha says:

    I didn’t understand the another pencil excercise.will someone help me to understand tht?

  42. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen saddam khan says:

    I am suffering from myopia and I am using spex of L-14
    R-16 and I want to get rid of from this what to do

  43. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen Anonymous says:

    does this work please respond

  44. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen krithy says:

    hi ,i am suffering myopia for last 9 years .do eye exercises really cure myopia .doctors told me eye exercises only cure myopia who is below 18 years old.more than 18 years old person doing eye exercises is not effective

  45. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen jackie chan says:

    how is difference between myopia and hyperopia created ?
    now tell that to me quickly as soon as possible

  46. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen Ryan Wu says:

    What is the definition of looking at opp side of the room after glancing at ur pencil, does opp means right behind u or just another part of the room

  47. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen Jigar says:

    Hello. This article seems quite helpful. I would give it a try for sure. I’m suffering from myopia. Its around -3 in both the eyes. Do I need to get rid of the glasses before trying these exercises?
    Hope there isn’t any adverse negative effect of leaving the glasses while doing it x_x

  48. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen Ajay says:

    i want to become a pilot and for that the vision should be perfect….. will these exercises help me in getting perfect vision…. my vision is 6/6 but i have a power of -0.25 of eye strain….. plzzz tell

  49. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen Anonymous says:

    Is there any age limit for eye exercises

  50. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen heather says:

    Do I need to use my glasses when exersizing

  51. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen sharib says:

    My eye power is -4.0 can contact lenses cure my problem

  52. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen Adarsh says:

    Sir, even I want to join the armed forces. But, my eyesight is a big problem, please guide me because they rejected me due to very bad eyesight

  53. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen Nooryesmin Pawan Jalaluddin says:

    I am going to try these exercises. Do I do all the three at once or do I concentrate one at a time?

  54. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen Help says:

    Will my vision improve if I only do the exercises here? Please do help!

  55. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen Arindam says:

    How fast can i improve my vision.i wear spectacles having power -1.25 and -0.75?please reply.

  56. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen Ayush Chopra says:

    my dream is to become a pilot and for that i need a perfect vision and i really crave some help
    my friend told me about you and i really need your help
    how should i start?
    please can you suggest me regarding this

  57. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen Dave says:

    You should take them off, of course.

  58. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen Lee says:

    Can we do this exercise while wearing our glasses or must we take it off ?

  59. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen Ohanuka Casmir says:

    I will start the training…follow me up.

  60. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen pranjal says:

    are we supposed to do this with corrective lenses or without them??

  61. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen Anonymous says:

    I, m 18 year guy and my power is -2.25 , is this exercise can cure me naturally ????

  62. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen subhashini says:

    Hellow Sir,
    I have myopia 1.75 vision. Will these exercise help me? I sm 29years old. Please guide me.

  63. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen larry says:

    my vision also poor at R = -5.5 D , L = -4.5 D
    this means that my farthest distance focal point = 39.37/5.5 = 7.2 ” , 39.37/4.5 = 8.8″
    Practicing eye exercises to reduce the myopia one would want a slightly blurry
    focus ~ 0.5 – 1.0 Diopter less then correct clear focus point so that the eyes can
    improve the 0.5 – 1.0 Diopter amount. Example for right eye only I would want to focus at
    4.5 D point = 8.8″ rather than the clear focus at 5.5 D point of 7.2″.
    When using both eyes this gets tricker because now this involves the convergence of the 2 eyes
    at close focus points and the convergence is yoked in with the eyes focus.
    meaning that higher convergence causes a closer focus.

  64. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen rising light says:

    Question: is it best to wear my glasses, contacts, or neither when doing these exercises? My vision is poor (-4.5) so I can’t seem to ‘focus’ on things more than a couple feet from me. Thank you!

  65. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen hameedkhan says:

    Hi sir I can’t improve my eye sight can u tell me all in 1 step .

  66. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen kavyapeddineni says:

    I started practicing these exercises.I hope they may be useful for me to improve my vision.

  67. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen Anonymous says:

    If my vision is 20/100 will this still improve it and how long will it
    take?

  68. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen mark says:

    hi sir please can any body tells me if eye exercise really works and how time should i do them a day
    please send me back please

  69. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen Chelie says:

    Thank you for your help. I have ordered and my vision is currently 20/50 in 1 eye and 20/40 in the other. Since I’m a dancer, I need to have good vision and I hope this will help!

  70. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen john says:

    thank you so much for doing all this, it helped me a lot so far, my vision have improved from worse than 20/70 to 20/30 in about a year, it’s amazing! I am now focusing on the last part, to make my vision perfect 🙂

  71. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen larry says:

    perhaps you could change your website text colors from light grey to dark black text to make it easier to read as I start to get eyestrain due to lack of contrast of the text from the background

  72. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen Pranshu says:

    Don’t blink while focusing on a close object.

  73. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen Anonymous says:

    No see it for 24hours

  74. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen Simran says:

    Of course ….as many times you want .

  75. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen Judy says:

    sure..keep it natural

  76. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen Muskan says:

    Should we wear glasses while exercising?

  77. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen Simran says:

    Do i need to wear spectacles / glasses during exercise ? And my myopia is 2.7 can it improve .Plz REPLY …!!! Thanks u guys really doing a great work.

  78. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen Anonymous says:

    I think it is close to your eyes until it starts to double

  79. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen Naleem says:

    That’s so good

  80. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen Zak says:

    Can I get your email address I want to all to u about that sir please.

  81. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen kavisha says:

    Is that true dr

  82. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen john says:

    did you where your glasses while doing the exercises

  83. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen Ash says:

    Which exercise were you doing and how long did it take to get improvement ??

  84. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen Anonymous says:

    With Godfidence have will power and keep on doing exercises with strong determination . Nothing is impossible. It will cure.

  85. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen alan walker says:

    No one to reply here…..

  86. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen sonu says:

    happy vision

  87. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen Anonymous says:

    You can correct with laser surgery,but sometimes there are adverse effects

  88. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen rishi raj says:

    laser treatment

  89. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen Anonymous says:

    How was it?

  90. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen Romeo says:

    Im having the same question but i think we won’t

  91. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen Rika says:

    But wearing the correct prescription might cause dizziness headache and pain in ur eyes because ur eyes will try so hard to adapt to the glasses.

  92. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen Anonymous says:

    One atva time

  93. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen Meh says:

    You just can’t stop your eye from blinking..

  94. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen Bob Smith says:

    oh the eyerony

  95. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen Preethy says:

    Can we blink the eye during this exercise?

  96. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen Bill says:

    Thanks Tyler,

    I agree with Larry.

    Bill

  97. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen raghunath says:

    how long you took for this exercise?

  98. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen Judy says:

    I would stick with “neither” since you are trying to improve your vision. And wearing your prescribed lenses literally requires your eyes to be and stay bad, right? I’m on -5 for both eyes so yeah, not many objects to practice on, mostly I’m doing pencil exercises, moving further and closer quickly. I’m trying to recognize the movement my eyes do when I move it further and then apply it on other things, even if I cannot see them clearly. I think it ‘s really working, though progress is slow, after 10 year of ignoring the problem.

  99. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen jackob says:

    without them ofcourse

  100. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen Tariel Hakobyan says:

    Trying this exercises is good idea. Yes they will help. Trying is not hard especially when it takes less then 20 min. Stop looking at computer go outside a.d look around

  101. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen Anonymous says:

    Congrats bhai

  102. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen Welcome says:

    Studies show that wearing a lower prescription than what you actually need will make your eyes worse faster than wearing your correct prescription

  103. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen Anonymous says:

    Without lence

  104. Avatar for Tyler Sorensen Anonymous says:

    In what time you impved it??

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About the Author

Avatar for Tyler Sorensen

Tyler Sorensen is the President and CEO of Rebuild Your Vision. Formerly, Tyler studied Aeronautics (just like his brother) with the dream of becoming an airline pilot, however, after 9/11 his career path changed. After graduating top of his class with a Bachelor of Science in Informational Technologies and Administrative Management, he joined Rebuild Your Vision in 2002. With the guidance of many eye care professionals, including Behavioral Optometrists, Optometrists (O.D.), and Ophthalmologists (Eye M.D.), Tyler has spent nearly two decades studying the inner workings of the eye and conducting research.

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