Eye Exercises for Astigmatism
Are you considering eye surgery to fix your astigmatism? Before you make that decision, there are some things you need to know. The number of refractive error correction surgeries being performed has dropped substantially over the last five years, and for good reason. Many doctors are linking techniques like LASIK to dry eye and other uncomfortable conditions. You don’t want to trade one vision problem for another. Luckily, more and more people are learning how to treat astigmatism with natural remedies like eye exercises, and you can too.
What Is Astigmatism?
Normally, the front of your cornea curves to fit the surface of your eye. Astigmatism is when one area is flatter than the other. As light tries to pass through the cornea to the retina, the uneven surface of your cornea misdirects it. This causes blurry vision.
The most common symptom of astigmatism is blurry vision. It can be very distracting and debilitating to deal with. Simple tasks like reading a book or being on the computer are a struggle with astigmatism. You may also notice other symptoms like eyestrain, headaches, and eye irritation.
If you’ve had a checkup with your eye doctor, they likely gave you three options for treating astigmatism: prescription glasses, contact lenses, or eye surgery. What they didn’t tell you was that there are natural ways you can treat your astigmatism that won’t cost a penny. Eye exercises and taking vision-boosting vitamins can improve your vision.
Do Vision Training Exercises Really Work?
Believe it or not, eye exercises can help you with your astigmatism. Eye muscles are like any other muscle in the body; if you don’t use them, you lose them. You may think you’re using your eye muscles every day that you open your eyes, but you’re not. Many of us use our eyes to stare straight ahead at the computer screen or at the road ahead. Our eye muscles are capable of so much more and most of us aren’t using them to their full potential.
It’s crucial that you exercise your eye muscles every day. Besides only looking straight ahead, you need to use your muscles to look all around. Remember that treating a health issue naturally won’t fix the problem overnight. You need to give your body a chance to build strength and heal.
Below are three astigmatism eye exercises you can do at home.
Exercise One: Varying Focus Exercise
The first exercise to strengthen your eyes is to read. OK… it’s a tad bit more complex than just picking up a good thriller and settling in for the evening. You need to read from varying distances to train different eye muscles. Here’s what to do:
- Start in a safe, seated position without wearing any corrective lenses. Pick out your favorite book.
- Read one page of text in your book (or read through an eye chart if you happen to have one). Next, avert your gaze to a different object that is a couple of feet away. It could be a plant, the couch, or art on the wall.
- Switch back to the book you were reading and read another page of text.
- Again, switch to the other object that is farther away and focus for 30 seconds before coming back to the text.
- Continue focusing on near and far objects like this for a few minutes or until your eyes feel tired.
It’s important not to squint or strain your eyes while doing this exercise. If your eyes become sore and tired take a break from the exercise and come back later in the day. Over time, you should find that you can continue for longer periods of time before your eyes become tired. This is proof that your eye muscles are getting stronger and your vision is improving.
Exercise Two: Check Your Head
People with astigmatism tend to tilt their heads in one direction or another to see. The cornea’s unevenness creates an inaccurate perception of what looking straight ahead is. One natural way to treat astigmatism is to be aware of your head tilting. If you’re tilting to one side, try tilting your head in the opposite direction of what feels most comfortable. It will feel uncomfortable at first. Your muscles are used to doing the wrong thing and need retraining.
It takes some time to get used to paying attention to the tilting. Our body wants to automatically compensate for astigmatism and tilting becomes a habit. It’s normal not to notice it at all. Consider asking a friend or your family to point out when they notice you tilting your head to see. If you correct it each time you notice, you can retrain your body. Your eye muscles will learn to see straight-ahead without tilting. It just takes a bit of time and patience.
Exercise Three: Fun with Paper
Who says exercising can’t be fun? If you want to try something a bit different, here’s a good one for you! This exercise is will strengthen your peripheral vision.
Get a piece of paper that is long and wide enough to cover both of your eyes. The paper should be long enough to cover your eyes but not block your side vision. You may want to use thick paper for this exercise so that you can’t see through it. Like all eye exercises, make sure you feel safe and comfortable. Follow these steps:
- Start without wearing any corrective lenses.
- Using a piece of tape, attach the paper to your forehead just above the bridge of your nose. You want the paper to block your forward vision while allowing you to see from the corners of your eyes.
- Next, raise one hand up to the side of your eye where the paper ends.
- Without moving your head, try to see each finger in your peripheral vision.
- Now, move on to the other side and do the same.
- Continue to do this for a couple of minutes or until your eyes get tired.
This exercise will strengthen the eye muscles that aid your peripheral vision. People who work on the computer and have astigmatism may have difficulty with it. Keep practicing and it’ll become easier.
By doing astigmatism eye exercises every day, you can improve poor vision due to astigmatism. You don’t need to resort to eye surgery or surrender to a lifetime of eyeglasses. There are natural and easy ways to repair your vision yourself. Practice these eye exercises and a few more, and take a daily eye vitamin. With a little time and effort, your vision will improve.
Our Rebuild Your Vision Ocu-Plus Formula Contains All 17 Vitamins, Minerals, and Herbal Supplements to Improve Your Eye Health!
Thanks for the tips. I am going to try it for 2 weeks, 3 weeks, a month. I am seeing double vision mostly at the end of the day due to astigmatism and dry eyes. Seen a few optometrists. Nothing I can do about it besides managing it. I will post my result if it works 🙂
I remember treating one client with rare condition a while a ago in my mobile massage practice but i dont think my aproach was not much help. does anybody know if there a massage treatment or technique that can help those patients
I used to have 20/-300 in my right eye and 20/225 in my left eye – When I started doing these exercise and others within two weeks I could not wear my new glasses – I still I had my old pair which was a 20/125 in both eyes – I put them on and could see good – I have had the same vision for 15 yrs now and every time I get my eyes checked I am told I have very healthy eyes and my prescription has stayed the same and I am now 63 years young so yes I can testify eye exercises really work
Hi Sir !
my friend have an stigmatism, so can you give us a tips or solutions for that thanks..
i have a severe astigmatism since I was a baby
how much would it take to improve my eyesight?
is ocu-plus formula also available in Pakistan?
Hi, My 2year old nephew has been diagnosed with astigmatism. He’s in US. What can you suggest for him?
The exercises in the muscles in your eyes work just like any other muscle in the body. Even though the cornea is not shaped as round as it should be, as the muscles become stronger, the muscles are more firm and tightens the eyes from the corners, as if you were grabbing your eye on the left and right and squeezing it slightly. The more firm the muscles, the more the muclses will be contracting the cornea and reshape itself. Use your brains guys. All muscles change shape depending on the strengthing of the muscles. The stronger they are, the more it will correct the problem
Hi
My daughter is only 3.5 years old and she has astigmatism. Optometrist said it is in between 3-4. She can’t manage with single eye, with both eyes her vision is better. Though she could figure out small pictures of objects on the eye test but she was confused with some though and with single eye her vision dropped significantly. Optometrist said she may be long-sighted than short-sighted. Optometrist recommended for glasses now but I am very worried and sad as she has to wear glasses at this age.
What exercise do you think would suit her? It will be hard for me to let her practice those exercises as she is too small. She can’t read yet and won’t be able to follow all instructions. Could you please suggest if her astigmatism may cure without glasses, only with exercise and vitamin? Do you have vitamin in syrup or lozenge form or any other kids’ favourable form?
When she was around 1 yr old, she used to see rhymes on laptops during feed time and for long time, it continued until she was close to 3 yrs old. I tried a lot to feed her without this but she wouldn’t eat. Do you think watching laptop from close has worsen her astigmatism?
Regards
Fatima
I am 55,Indian from Asia.I have blurry eyes.may be astigmatism?
Morning time it is almost better and to clear but as heat and sunlight goes up it starts blurry vision.I had taken Asprin for headache,if it is migraine and the opthomolgist has prescribed eye drops.Pain is reduced but blurry vision is still there.
Why it is clear in the morning then starts blurring up?
May be astigmatism? Please suggest.
The opthomolgist told that eyes are normal.
Mr.Yusuf
I have astigmatism only in one of my eyes so would the exercises be more effective if I cover my other eye or is there no difference?
Still waiting to hear how wxcersizing a muscle in the eye reshapes the cornea
How do eye exercises that exercise muscles change the physiology of the cornea such that it can refract light properly?
Hello i got astigmatism too my numbers are low 0.25-0.50 and im not using my glasses in normal but when im on pc (i look screen 6-7 hours a day) i took my glasses if i wont my eyes strain hard , is it dangerous to dont take glasses when looking at the screen ?
How long i shud wait for the result
I’ve had astigmatism for as long as I could remember, its sucks, I saw this article and I’m left wondering, could my vision revert to 20/20 eventually? My dream job requires perfect vision and I can’t do any type of surgery, nor can I were lenses or glasses for it, so again I ask, so you think its possible for my vision get to 20/20?
Just a few questions isn’t most astigmatism caused from a refractive error of the cornea or lease of the eye itself? And how will eye exercises help to fix a cornea that is either to flat or to round?
Astigmatism is an imperfection in the curvature of the cornea, so how does exercising the muscles inside the eye change the shape of the surface of your eye? That doesn’t seem to make sense to me. It seems like your only source is simply because it “worked for you”, but do you have any scientific studies that back up what you are claiming? You can’t exactly rule out other factors, such as change in diet or exercise or external factors, such as moving to a location with less allergens when there’s only one person in your “study”.
Recently I discovered I have an astigmatism in one of my eyes. Is there any way that I can figure out which eye it is without having to schedule an eye exam?
Hello sir i am medical student have power of 6.5 and 7.00 ..doc says its myopic astigmatism with some deviation of left eyeball on focussing a particular object..what are the eye exercises i can do to recover fast??
Hello sir, I have astigmatism. Does palming. rotating eye clockwise/anti-clock wise and blinking eye will help to cure my problem? My powers are -3.25 and -2.50.
I have astigmatism of about 5 in my right eye. So can you please tell approximate how much time it will take for me to decrease it even by .50 by doing exercises.
Thanks in advance.
Hi Tyler,
The fun with Paper exercise, If I have a horizontal astig blurred vision (means blur at the top and bottom of the object), do I flash my fingers above and below my eyes or still focus my fingers on the left/right of each eye?
I feel an easy way to understand this is to perform convergence and divergence of the eyes as is done in the 3 cup exercise.
Hello Mr. Tyler,
i’m a computer student, studing in 12th standard. i used to work on computer for at least 6-8 hrs a day n doctor had prescribed me a thick glasses with high power, so i want to ask that is this exercise will work for me also, or do you have any more effective trick ..??
Please help i have power of 300 in my left eye and no astigmatism and 75 in my right.but my right eye has astigmatism of 200.should i get an eye patch and which eye should i patch?when doing this exercise do i need to cover my left eye?
Hi i have a pretty vision and i don’t really want glasses or do any surgery. I read this and may I ask does this really work? please answer me truthfully because I would really want to read without glasses or contact lenses. thanks so much.
Hi Tyler, tnx this is exactly what i was looking for. I do agree with Tammy though: the excercise about paper in front of your eyes could be explained more clairly. I also didnt get that you should not move your eyes from the text. And furthermore: how far to the sides should the paper block your vision? And do you keep both fingers up and within vision and only make yourself aware of one finger at the time? That is, you focus your attention on one finger without moving your head, eyes or finger right? So the other finger remains within sight but youre just not focussing on it, right?
Hi, I’m 18 years old. I’m suffering from myopia, astigmatism and lazy eye. My right is -5.5 D , CYL -1.75, my left is -1.5D , CYL -2.5. my right one is lazy. What should I do to improve my eyesight? I have really bad eyesight. The right is 20/400, left is 20/70. Please give me some advices . Thanks for reading
Great tips! One question though. I’ve been doing the exercises without glasses, but after I’m done I’ll usually put my glasses back on after a couple minutes. Is this ok to do?
I have an astig index of 250, which is quite high. Wonder will this work?
What if the grade of my lens is over 300 will this still work?
Hi Tyler,
Thanks for the info on this page.
I think:
“your the cornea”
should read either:
“the cornea”
or possibly:
“your cornea”.
Thanks.
TRS
Great catch Terry. Thank you!
Thank you so much for sharing your experience ! I’ve been going through the same dilemma with an incredibly bad vision and wishing there was another way than surgery to get back 20/20 vision to be a pilot ! I was about to give up when my eyes started becoming uncomfortable with my contact lenses/glasses. My vision improved only slightly in the last two weeks, but it was a change & it really boosted my spirits !!
It’s also a relief to know that someone other than myself has managed to be a pilot having had bad eyesight as a teenager!
Hello Tyler,
Just a quick question… in the exercise mentioned above, titled “Fun with Paper” – when looking at our fingers (#4), I understand we shouldn’t move our head, but what about the eyes? Should we look at the fingers with the corner of the eye (indirect vision) or can we actually move the eye to the right and left respectively? I’m confused about this.
Thanks!
This exercise is aimed at strengthening peripheral vision, so you want to keep your eyes focused straight ahead at the paper in front of them. Try to see the finger on one side without moving your eyes.
Hi!
Just want to testify that eye exercises really do work for curing astigmatism. I did try a certain exercise and actually eliminated my astigmatism. I was told this by my optometrist when I was getting a new pair of reduced prescription glasses. I do however concur with Kathy’s ophthalmologist about the time required to do these exercises. It really takes much commitment and consistence to see improvements. That said, it’s definitely not impossible to improve your eyesight. You have put together a helpful website and wonderful product Tyler!
Hello,
I asked my son to buy your products for me (for Christmas) & he did. I read all the info in the loose leaf binder & then took it to my ophthalmologist’s office for approval before beginning the exercises.
Well, I was quite surprised & disappointed when he told me that “there is no such thing” & that you are “making a lot of money” … He also told me, “Don’t waste your time … who has time for that in their life?” The only good thing he said is that it won’t hurt me to do the exercises (but that it won’t help either). He also told me how to find out if you’re telling the truth would be to get your eye records from whomever your eye dr. is, stating this would be a lot of work!!
It’s still sitting on my kitchen table, and I haven’t made the commitment to put in the time since I’ve been spending hours on end job searching (my priority for a long time). How can you convince me otherwise in order to motivate me? Any comments by users of your products would be very, very welcome (even if they don’t buy your other vitamin products). Thank you so, so very much.
Hi Kathy,
Thanks for writing.
Tens of thousands of people have used the Ocu-Plus Formula to improve their vision safely and naturally. We have hundreds and hundreds of success stories that have been sent to us, many of which you can read on our website. You will also see my actual before and after eye exam results directly on our website.
You might look to find a behavioral optometrist in your area that is more familiar with natural vision improvement. It sounds like your doctor might not be familiar with how it can help. And more than anything, try the vitamins for yourself. I believe the results will speak for them self.
Let us know if there’s anything else we can do to help.
Have you any knowledge on Lebers disease my grandson who is 24yrs old suffers from Lebers and lost his cenral vision,he is on lots of vitamins and minerals including q10.He is also on IDEBENONE which he gets of his consultant who he see”s every three months.
Hi Brenda,
Unfortunately I don’t. I can only recommend checking with your eye doctor and even getting a second opinion from other eye doctors. Sorry I couldn’t be much help.
Which exercises do you use for progression?
Well I went to the eye doctor and all they did was give me glasses and there coming in soon
Why your Ocu-Plus is not available in medical drugs stores or vitamins shops ?
I was just reading the post and it is VERY typical of a Doctor to knock down anything Natural. My opinion is they very took time to study it. I try to go for Natural first…..It never fell me yet.
Hi Tyler, I just saw your reply for the first time. Thanks so much for referring me to your website for more info. Right now though I need to get off the tablet as my eyes are tired from the “backlight.” Since I first wrote, my ophthalmologist has gone out on medical leave & then retired. The retina specialist I see just informed me he’s moving “up” & needs to change who my next & all future appointments are with. I’m not happy about this!!
This morning I left a message to order a month’s trial supply of your vitamins but worry I may not have the finances to continue at $35 per month, as I am still seeking full time employment. My vision has become worse at night or in dark, but it is also much more light sensitive by day (sun glare). I can’t afford prescription sunglasses but use 2 different visors when driving (brown for day & yellow for night).
“Kathy” just returned my call from Rebuild Your Vision & I decided not to order the trial yet … as she explained it takes a couple months to see results so perhaps I should wait until I am re-employed full time (steady) in order to continue buying vitamins. (It’s already been 5 years since my job search began so I hope it happens SOON!) In the meantime, I must get serious about my diet, exercise, sleep & using the 10-10-10 rule. I’ll let you know if I have any vision changes & will refer back to your website more often to keep mindful. Thanks again.
What kind of exercises did you do?
Hi Noah, what exact exercises did you do to help with your astigmatism? I’m 19 and suffering from astigmatism after I studied for weeks and weeks in front of a computer for my final exams, and now my before-perfect vision tries my patience every day. I feel like there’s a constant film in front of my eyes, I’d love to know the exercises you used to eliminate this problem, thanks!
Yes the eye exercise does help
Cover your left _better_eye for 3 hours a day at least to make the right eye strengthen itself and about the lazy eye cover your right, non lazy eye so the left eye will get rid of laziness
Hi all, my name is Christine. When I was eleven years old my teachers said I had learning disabilities, but knowing me better, my mother refused to accept it. Instead she investigated other things and my eye doctor determined that my eye muscles were weak, making me unable to track words properly across a page or read number without mixing up their order. The optometrist set me through a year of rigorous eye exersizes and (even though my young and stubborn self resented this) my parents assiduously kept me to the program. Within a year I was reading better than most kids my age and no longer needed corrective lenses either!!! Exersizing the eyes is a very medically sound approach to correcting vision. A friend of mine (who is an optomologist) often uses it to treat patients who suffer migraines becauseof eye strain. I’m sorry you have a dud eye doctor Kathy. There IS SUCH A THING as eye exersize and it is effective. Be careful though! Like all exersize, take it slow. You can get a nasty reaction headache from overworking your eyes!