Fighting Presbyopia With Eye Exercises

If you're over 40, you're probably experiencing - or will soon experience - some level of aging vision or presbyopia. You know, it's that aggravating experience of realizing you need to hold a book, newspaper or digital reading device a little further away from your eyes than before to allow your eyes to focus.

Presbyopia occurs from the gradual thickening and lessening of flexibility of the lens of the eye. The changes due to aging also occur in the muscle fibers surrounding the lens, contributing to focus difficulties. With less elasticity in the lens and less muscle control, focusing on nearby objects is not as easy as it once was.

But unlike more serious eye problems, presbyopia can be improved to some degree on your own. Like any other part of your body, you eyes have muscles that can use some exercise as your get older. There are exercises for the eyes that have shown to be effective in improving some of the symptoms of presbyopia and laying the groundwork for improved vision.

The exercises concentrate on stimulating the eye muscles through flexing and relaxing, thus forcing the eye muscles to work a little harder than they are used to. The increased activity helps your eyes ability to focus with lessened difficulty.

One of the easiest and most effective exercises is to close your eyes and rotate them in a clockwise and then counterclockwise direction. This simple exercise loosens the ocular eye muscles and helps improve blood flow in area surrounding the eye, which increases the level of oxygen, which helps improve vision.

This exercise loosens your ocular eye muscle which helps to improve blood flow in surrounding areas of the eye, increasing the level of oxygen, thus improving vision. Rotate your eyes in each direction 10 to 15 times.

Another great exercise starts with holding your index finger approximately 6 inches from your face. Focus your eyes as best you can on the tip of your finger for roughly 90 seconds. Then shift your focus in the same direction as your finger to something approximately 10 feet away. Then focus back on the tip of your finger. Keep shifting the focus back and forth, decreasing the time spent between the two focal points until your switching focus roughly every few seconds. The entire exercise should last around five minutes.

Along the same lines as the previous exercise is routine where you stand or sit with your arm extended and thumb up. While focusing on your thumb, slowly bring it closer to your face while trying to keep your thumb in focus as best you can. When it's too difficult to keep your thumb in focus, slowly move it back out to arm's length, again keeping it in focus as it moves away. Repeat the exercise for 3 to 5 minutes.

Spending just 15 to 20 minutes a day doing some or all of these exercises can help improve your vision within a couple weeks.