With schools shut down, most of the children are holed up inside their houses all day. They are increasingly becoming dependent on the digital medium for both educational and recreational purposes. We are not denying the fact that digital medium is helping us in many ways, but there is also a need to understand that the increased exposure to the screen is harmful to our eyes and our brain as well.
If you haven’t checked your screen time yet, then you should check it right away! The numbers might shock you as well. You are using your mobile phones, laptops, tablets, and Televisions as well for various purposes. You must also be binge-watching your favorite tv-series and movies too!? Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hotstar combined with Zoom, WebEx meets and what not!
We are not here to stress the ill effects of increased screen time on our health, but we want you to take care of your eyes. If you concentrate on a small screen all day long, your eyes need rest and a proper workout too.
Some of you must be gym freaks, and it must be easy for you to perform those physical exercises. But for most of us, it is the other way around. Just hearing the word, ‘Exercise’ puts us off.
No need to panic. Even if you are lazy, you can take out some time out of your busy schedule and perform the easy and effective eye exercises listed below. And of course! If you are a parent, ensure you teach these easy peasy exercises to your kids, too, as their eyes need extra attention.
Eye Exercise for Kids
Kids nowadays run away the instant they hear about eating something healthy. Carrots and other healthy foods rich in vitamins and minerals are perfect for your child’s eyes.
If you can, make sure they have such vegetables and fruits in their diet.
Not every kid has perfect 20/20 vision but are you wondering if the eye exercises can improve your kid’s eyesight? The answer is yes! Read up the whole article if you want to know all kinds of activities that can be done quickly and without putting in much effort.
Benefits of Eye Exercises
These exercises are safe to do. There are no risks of getting hurt while performing these.
These exercises can be done in a short period. No matter how busy your day is, you can still manage to take out some time and take care of your eyes.
These can help in improving your poor eyesight. As we all know, glasses and lenses can help you see clearly, but they cannot improve your vision. So take your chances and try these.
These exercises are suitable for your young adults and kids too. Anyone can practice these exercises and improve their vision.
Eye Blinking Exercise for Dry Eyes
Tell your kid to flutter his/her eyelids continuously for 30 to 40 seconds. After it’s done, tell them to stop the fluttering and to close their eyes for a while. The closing of the eyes will help in relaxing, and that’s it. Repeat this exercise 5 times after adequate intervals. It will help you improve dry eyes.
1. Candle Light Eye Exercise
In a dark room, light a candle at least 2 feet to the left of your child. Give him/her something to read under this light. Half a page would be enough to exercise your eye muscles. Try blinking at 5 seconds intervals during reading. Do the same by placing the candle to the right.
2. Pencil Exercise for Eyes
Hand over a pencil to your child and tell them to hold it at arm’s length. Now ask them to focus on it’s tip. Now all they have to do is to move the pencil far from the sight and then move it towards the eyes till they reach the point where they can still focus on it.
You can repeat this activity 9 to 10 times a day.
3. Eye Rotation Exercise
This activity can improve your children’s eyesight.
Tell your child to roll his/her eyeballs clockwise, ten times in a row. After it’s done, move them anticlockwise ten times again. That’s it!
4. Eye Exercise in the Sun
While you take your child outside on a sunny day, make them close their eyes and let the sunshine fall on their closed eyelids. Try closing the eyes for as long as possible and then slowly and gradually open them. Try this exercise with the sun daily and see the difference for yourself.
5. Swinging Eye Exercise
Tie a ball with a string and swing it like a pendulum going to and fro. Now tell your child to watch the ball while it moves from left to right. It will help strengthen the muscles of their eyes.
6. Bouncing Ball
It is an entertaining game to play. Tell your kid to hold a ball in one hand, bounce it off the ground and catch it with their other hand.
Face made with eyes mask and red nose
While doing this, their eyes must follow the path in which the ball moves.
Eye Exercises to Improve your Vision
A healthy lifestyle is always helpful.
Eat healthily. Drink healthy.
Take some time for you and your eyes and go out.
Leave your phones, computers, or other electronic devices at home.
And of course, perform the following exercises listed below. Do these activities regularly, and you will surely see and experience the changes in your eyesight.
1. Focus Change
Keep your finger at an arm’s distance and try to focus on your fingertip.
Move your finger at another point that is half the length of your arm and then focus on your fingertip.
Keep doing this in intervals of 5 to 10seconds.
It is one of the best exercises to relax and strengthen the muscles of your beautiful eyes.
2. Rubdown
Whenever your eyes are tired or strained, and you need a refreshing activity, then this is the activity that you should go for. It is one of our personal favorites. You can try this even when your contact lenses are on.
Briskly rub your palms against each other until they start feeling warm.
Slowly lift and place your palms over closed eyes for some time.
You don’t need to press too much.
Remove your hands and gradually open your eyes.
3. Flexing
Just like your body needs stretching, your eyes need flexing.
Sit/stand with your back straight and look down without moving your neck.
Look up as far as you can and repeat this up and down movement a few times.
You can do this daily for significant results.
4. Eye roll
Next time you hear something that makes you roll your eyes in a sigh, then don’t feel so bad about it.
Rolling your eyes is very useful, and when done regularly, it can help strengthen your eye muscles.
Doing this will also improve the shape of your eyes.
Sit or stand straight and roll your eyes in a clockwise and anticlockwise direction a few times.
5. Blink
If you are working from home or attending online classes, then continually staring at the computer, mobile or tablet screen can lead to eye and mental fatigue.
Blink blink and blink your eyes and keep your neck and shoulders straight.
Give your eyes a break, perform this activity for a few seconds, and then look at a bare wall.
It is a beneficial and easy exercise that would take care of your eyes.
6. Palming
This activity is very soothing.
Sit on a chair and cup your eyes with your hands.
Breathe in and breathe out. That’s it. Simple! Isn’t it?
Try doing this after heavy mental work. It will relax your eyes and mind as well.
7. Eye bouncing
Suppose your eyeballs are balls. Just like you bounce the balls, bounce your eyeballs in the same manner. Okay, let me clear this for you.
What to do?
Look down while standing straight and then look upwards.
Breathe in when you look upwards and breathe out while looking down.
Do this daily for 5 minutes.
Now, does it sound good? It’s easy.
8. Double thumbs up
No, you don’t have to drink two bottles of thumbs up. This exercise is a shifting focus activity.
What to do?
Place your thumbs in front of your eyes and first gaze at the right thumb, hold your vision, and then shift your focus in between two thumbs.
Then finally, shift your gaze to the left thumb.
Try doing this for two minutes, every day.
9. The eye press
Are you having another stressful day? Take a breath and sit straight.
What to do?
Close your eyes and press your both eyes with your hands for about 10 seconds.
Release all the pressure and then again press your eyelids.
Do this activity for 1minute.
And thank us later.
10. Trace an infinity sign
All you need is your imagination and the game of your eyeballs.
What to do?
Visualize an eight or infinity sign and move your eyeballs from left to right in that shape only.
Try doing this while sitting on a chair.
It is undoubtedly going to help your eyes a lot.
11. Sidelong Glance
Don’t do it at a public place as you may look creepy while doing this.
What to do?
Sit or stand straight, and while not moving your head try looking to the left as much as you can.
And in the same way to the right.
Hold your sight for 3-4 seconds.
12. Write messages for your loved ones
No, I don’t mean to text someone.
What to do?
Look at a wall and try writing something with your eyes.
It will let your eyes move in all directions; this is a good exercise for your eye muscles.
13. Eye Exercises for Farsightedness
Hypermetropia, also known as farsightedness, is when close objects appear clearly, but far ones don’t.
Farsightedness is a refractive error, where you can see things up close but have difficulties focusing on something far away from you.
Symptoms of farsightedness are
Blurry vision
Eyestrain
Discomfort
Restlessness and irritability
14. William Bates Method
Dr. William Bates was a world-renowned doctor who created a set of eye exercises to strengthen your eye muscles
What to do?
Swinging – Look at a swinging object and try to focus on it. Don’t forget to blink in between too moist your eyes?
Palming- Cover your eyes with your hands, but rub your hands to warm them before doing that.
15. Brock String
It helps in improving eye coordination.
What to do?
All you need is a string and some beads.
Pinup one end of the string to a motionless object, or another person can hold one back.
Hold the other end of the string just below the nose.
And place one bead on the strong.
Look straight at the bead with both eyes.
If your eyes are perfectly alright. You can see an X
16. 20-20 Rule
This exercise is a must-do for the people who spend long hours on computer screens.
What to do?
Look at something from 20 seconds 20 feet away every 20 minutes while working on computers.
You can do this activity in between while working on your laptops.
17. Pinhole Effect
As you guessed it right, the pinhole effect is practiced by creating a pinhole.
What to do?
You can do this by clenching up your fist and seeing through the hole created at the back of your fist.
You can also practice this by creating a hole in a box and then peeping through it.
It will help you to focus better.
Eye Exercises for Myopia
It is a condition in which close objects appear clearly, but far ones don’t.
Myopia, also called Nearsightedness, occurs when the eye grows long from front to back, causing light to focus in front of the retina. Thus you aren’t able to focus on the things placed far away.
The rate of myopia worldwide is increasing rapidly. It’s estimated that by the year 2050, roughly half of the world population will be nearsighted. These are some eye exercises that you can try daily for the people suffering from Nearsightedness.
1. Room scanning
Sit on a chair and choose a place or a room having so many objects in it.
Sit straight on your chair and start scanning the room from left to right, looking at all the objects, detailing.
Try making outlines of all the objects and what else you see.
Do this exercise slowly and steadily.
2. Pencil pushup therapy
To start the therapy, hold a pencil at arm’s length and draw it towards your nose while keeping a clear focus.
Repeat the exercise when the pencil begins to appear as a double image.
3. Prims or lens Fixation
This activity teaches your eyes to look at the things and persons that may be very close.
In this activity, you have to look into different lenses of varying powers or prisms.
4. Patching
Wear a cold patch on your eyes. It is soothing and also helps to improve your eyesight, especially when you have myopia.
5. Vision Rest
It is almost similar to the 20/20/20 rule.
Give your eyes rest after they are done with the heavy work.
Look away at the object 20 feet apart for 20 seconds after every 20 minutes.
Tips for looking after your eyes
Eye exercises are just one way of pampering your eyes. Some everyday actions can also help to optimize your eye health.
1. Take regular breaks
2. Get your eyes checked.
3. Protect your eyes from Ultraviolet radiations(UV Rays)
4. Eat well.
5. Visit your eye doctor regularly.
Conclusion
Don’t take your eyes for granted. Your body part needs attention. You must take care of your eyes if you have a perfect vision. Eye exercises and Yoga for the eyes are a bliss.
If you follow all the activities mentioned above, you will undoubtedly lead to a better life. Visit your eye doctor if you face problems while focusing on the objects or experiencing severe headaches and vomiting.
Our eye is a complex organ that needs the necessary minerals and vitamins A, E, C. You must eat a healthy diet for the best results.
Saakshi Pathak aka Iska Review girl is a blogger, script writer, book reviewer, youtuber and a show host. Her writings are often witty and layered with sarcastic comments. She makes videos on social issues and has also been working with various media houses as a freelance content creator. She loves collecting and wearing jhumkas. She's an avid book reader. She is currently based in Chandigarh and is working as a freelancer.
