Most of us forget to relax our eyes as we go about our daily work. There are in fact, eye exercises that you can in the office or at home to help you relax your eyes and even improve your vision. These can also help you prevent or reduce eye discomfort such as red eyes or dry eyes.
Blink More Often
Did you know that when you are looking at a TV screen, computer screen or mobile screen for prolonged periods of time, you actually don’t blink as often. From 20bpm (blink per minute), looking at the screen reduces it to 6-8bpm. This results in eye strain and dry eyes which can cause headaches and blurry vision. So don’t forget to blink more often. This helps to lubricate your eyes and signals your brain to refresh so you can look at the data on your screen with fresh eyes.
Do an Eye Roll
We usually do an eye roll to express our disbelief or annoyance towards another person. However, eye rolls are actually a great exercise to improve our vision. Instead of doing it on one side only, do it on the other side too. Look upwards then downwards as well as left and right. You can also draw geometric figures with your gaze like a circle or a square. Try to do it slowly and repeat 5-10 times on each side. Make sure you are moving only your eyes and not your head instead.
Trace an Eight
This is a fun exercise that helps you to increase the flexibility of your eye muscles. Imagine that you are looking at a meadow or the horizon far away. At about 10 feet away, imagine a large number 8 lying on its side on the ground. Trace the figure’s lines with your eyes. Do it clockwise, the counter-clockwise at least 10 times on each side. Again do this slowly so you don’t get dizzy. It would be fun to have someone do this with you.
Focus Near and Far
This exercise is especially helpful for people who wear glasses. Near-sightedness and far-sightedness is caused by our eye muscles not being used enough to focus on objects near us and far from us. Because of our mobile and computer screens, we don’t often spend as much time gazing at objects around us using our own eyes. We take pictures of a lot of these things instead for posting to our social media accounts.
To do this exercise, take off your glasses. Stretch out one arm and make an okay sign with your thumb. Put your other thumb close to your nose. Focus on the thumb closes to you for 2 seconds and move your gaze to your thumb farther away for another 2 seconds. Then focus on an object even further away also for 2 seconds. Bring your focus back to the thumb far from you, then back to the thumb close to you. Repeat this slowly for about 10 times.
Do the 20/20/20
A quick exercise you can do to rest your eyes and lubricate it is to follow the 20/20/20 rule. Take a 20-second break every 20 minutes of work. Use this time to focus on an object in the distance, 20 feet away from you. This can help you prevent eye strain and dry eyes.
Warm Your Eyes
After doing all the exercises, you might feel your eyes getting tired or strained. Just close your eyes, rub your palms together and cup each palm to the socket of each eye. Keep your eyes closed and try to stare into the dark space while keeping your eyes focused in the distance. Hold the gentle pressure until all the residual colors you see fade to black. The warmth of your palm will help relax your eyes and refresh them. Do this for around 30 seconds.
Doing these exercises will help you strengthen your eye muscles and improve your vision in the long term. The best way to maintain your eye health is to see a professional for any issues and maintain your physical wellness through a healthy diet and exercise.
Feature Image: Original Photo by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash.