Eye Exercises for Myopia

Dynamic divergence exercise is usually difficult for myopic persons while they haven’t proper visual skill for distant vision. I hope the next transitional exercise I wrote will help you.

Open Microsoft Word, set large font size 72pt and type several eight-pointed stars (06DE+Alt+X). Print the file and cut out the stars. Glue a pair of stars to the window glass at your eye’s level. The distance between the centers of stars should be equal to your pupillary distance (PD). Stand at the distance of twice arm’s length (one meter approximately). Use glasses that are two-diopters lower than your current values of myopia.

First look at the window and watch two stars. Count up in your mind: one-and-two-and-three-and-four-and. It’s better to use a metronome. The online metronome link. Set up the metronome at 120 beats per minute. Now count rhythmically with the beats: one (beat) - and (beat) - two (beat) - and (beat) - three (beat) - and (beat) - four (beat) - and (beat). Look at the eight-pointed stars by turns, two beats (one-and) watch the left star and next two beats (two-and) watch the right star, then two beats (three-and) watch the left star and next two beats (four-and) watch the right star. Thus you need four seconds total time for the vision at the distance of one meter.

Then keep your line of vision between the stars and look through the window glass into the distance. You’ll see four stars. Merge a pair of middle stars into one. So you should see three stars. Watch the merged (middle) star and count again: one (beat) - and (beat) - two (beat) - and (beat) - three (beat) -and (beat) - four (beat) - and (beat). So you need four seconds total time for distant vision. Next look at the window again (four seconds), then look through the window into the distance (four seconds) and repeat the action again, etc.

Remember: you should practice the extraocular muscle warmup or the advanced extraocular muscle warmup before the divergence exercise. Optimal set length for the dynamic divergence exercise is from one to three minutes. Then take a short rest and resume the exercise. Also you should practice the relaxation massages (part 1 and part 2) after the exercises for deep rest. Continue dynamic divergence exercise until you get tired. Total workout time is not more than 30 minutes.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Feel free to contact me.

Dr. Arkadiy Davydov

Dynamic vergence (divergence and convergence) eye exercises should be performed using a pair of eight-pointed stars (۞) with distance between their centers equal to your pupillary distance (PD). I recommend you to use this simple method to measure your PD. Horizontally place a millimeter ruler to your forehead and take a picture of yourself. Upload this photo on your PC, open it in Microsoft Office Picture Manager and edit so that only your eyes and ruler were visible.

Save the photo and open it in Microsoft Paint. Use “Select” tool to select part of ruler image.

Select part of ruler image with digits from zero to eight.

Then, using your mouse, drag selected image, so that top part of the ruler was on the level with your pupils. Zero mark should match center of your left pupil, that way center of your right pupil indicates your PD.

Now your PD is known and you can correctly set distance between the centers of eight-pointed stars (۞) for dynamic eye exercises.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Feel free to contact me.

Dr. Arkadiy Davydov

I have deleted the comment accidentally and I restored it in the blog:

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Ramapriya:

23.02.2012 at 19:00 # | Edit

Hello doctor,

I have -6 dioptre on both my eyes. The information given is really awesome. I have started doing divergent and convergent exercise along with eye massage for half an hour daily since 10 days. I could see the good improvement. I stopped wearing specks and when I tried now, I see the images are zoomed…

Is the above exercises are enough. Plz sugg.

Tons of thanks for the valuable information.

Regards
Ramapriya
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Ramapriya, you wrote “I see the images are zoomed… ” My patients also often notice the same effect after doing the dynamic eye exercises - “telescopic vision” - when they are able to see distant objects closer, clearer, brighter, and more colored, as compared to the way they saw these objects before doing these eye exercises.

More information about zoom-vision (telescopic vision) in Take Aim At The Bird’s Eye and Less Area of Active Vision Means Better Eyesight.

Eagles and the other birds of prey use the same kind of vision to find the prey. Watch this video carefully from 1:30 to 1:45

Let me know if you have any questions.

Feel free to contact me.

Dr. Arkadiy Davydov

Dynamic eye exercises for better vision develop visual concentration, foveal fixation, and voluntary convergence with voluntary divergence. These visual skills help you to increase your uncorrected visual acuity. Generally, these eye exercises develop dynamic eye fixation, which is the right visual skill. The main problem is that normal visual skill really is an abnormal habit for a myopic person. But after a few weeks of practice, my myopic patients notice more mind relaxation, visual comfort, and better uncorrected visual acuity.

I often notice an interesting phenomenon - at the beginning,  myopic persons usually narrow, squint or screw up their eyes when doing eye exercises. After a few weeks of practice, they do the eye exercises with open and relaxed eyes. So, if you have some difficulties when doing the dynamic fixation eye exercises, don’t worry - this just reflects your myopic habits. If you persevere in doing these eye exercises, you will see positive result.

In the last two articles, I wrote about dynamic convergence and dynamic divergence. This eye exercise is a combination of those two. For better results, you should first do the advanced extraocular muscles warm-up for a duration of 2-3 minutes, or count up to 100.

Then, place your sheet of paper (affixed to cardboard) with Arabic symbols at arm’s length. The distance between the symbols and your eye should be about 50 centimeters. Watch the plus symbol for 2-3 seconds. Next cross your eyes as if you want to see the bridge of your nose. Notice that you are now seeing the symbols with double vision. Bring both middle symbols close enough that they overlap each other. The symbols will be attracted to each other, and fusion will be completed. Keep your eyes trained on the symbol of fusion for 2-3 seconds, then move your sight to the plus symbol for 2-3 seconds.

Next, relax your eye muscles and - using your imagination - direct your line of sight through the sheet a great distance away. Notice that you are now seeing double. Bring the middle symbols close enough that they overlap each other for fusion. Keep your eyes on the middle symbol for 2-3 seconds, then move your eye back to the plus symbol. Then repeat your actions.

You should imagine three points of visual axes intersecting in space in front of you:

- at a distance of 50 centimeters on the sheet of paper,

- at a distance of 25 centimeters when doing dynamic convergence,

- at a great distance away when doing dynamic divergence.

When doing this eye exercise, a normal-sighted person changes the effort of convergence, but the effort of accommodation is the same - 2.0 diopters - because the distance between the eyes and the symbols is 0.5 meter in all cases.

Doing this eye exercise, you are walking in space, using your vision, from one point to the next with short stops for fusion. This eye exercise is very useful for developing visual concentration and foveal fixation. Also, the dynamic vergence exercise doesn’t overload accommodation but helps to develop voluntary convergence and voluntary divergence with central foveal fixation.

You should do this eye exercise a total of 30 minutes each day. Before doing the eye exercises, the extraocular muscles warm-up is obligatory (count up to 100). To avoid tiredness when doing the exercise, you should periodically close your eyes and do the relaxation massage.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Feel free to contact me.

Dr. Arkadiy Davydov