Eye exercises for presbyopia (farsightedness)

Presbyopia – farsightedness – can be corrected with glasses, contacts, or surgery, but eye exercises can also help improve the condition. The trick is, you need to practice eye exercises regularly to start noticing positive changes in your vision.

Light enters the eye through the cornea and passes through the pupil. The colored portion of your eye – or the iris – opens and closes the pupil to allow in the appropriate amount of light. This light is filtered through the lens. The lens will then change shape to bend the rays of light onto the retina – located at the back of the eye. This is how we see and focus on images.

With aging, the lens has a harder time bending and changing shape because it becomes weak. This slower motion results in its inability to focus on objects up close. Images then may appear blurry.

You may find you have to stand further back from objects or hold them further from your line of vision. This may be annoying, but it can easily be fixed with corrective lenses – or, in extreme cases, surgery.

Below you will find some useful eye exercises that you can practice regularly in order to improve presbyopia.

Eye exercises for presbyopia

Just like with physical exercise, it’s always important to warm up prior to eye exercise session. You can start your warm-up by closing your eyes and rotating them 10 to 15 times clockwise, and then counterclockwise. Open your eyes and allow them to focus. You are ready to start your practice now.

There are many exercises for your eyes. For starters, you can blink. Every time you blink, you create moisture, which in turn soothes the eyes. If you start feeling some eye strain, simply blink continuously for four to five seconds.

Other type of exercise you can do is breathing or meditation, often easier to do first thing in the morning or at the end of your day. You can recharge by closing your eyes and focusing on your breathing. Inhale through the nose and exhale through the mouth for at least two minutes, then open your eyes without focusing on anything in particular. Repeat this at least three times.

Giving your eyes a break is a great natural way to improve eyesight. Just remember to avoid eyestrain by looking away from your computer screen, for example, and limiting your TV time.

One technique involves crossing your eyes and focusing on the tip of your nose. Focus on the tip of your nose, turn your gaze to a faraway object, and then return your focus back to the tip of your nose. Keep the narrow focus as long as it takes you to inhale a breath, then switch to the further object when you exhale.

Another helpful eye exercise is to hold written text about three inches away from your eyes. Keep the text upside down and gaze around each letter in each word.

Lastly, physical exercise can go a long way to improve presbyopia, too, because when our heart is strong there is an ample supply of blood flow reaching the eyes and providing them with nutrients. So along with your eye exercises, don’t forget to work out your body for additional benefits.