Eye Exercises for Astigmatism

Astigmatism is a common eye disorder that affects your vision. The muscles around your eyes are affected which causes undue stress on the cornea which causes the cornea to lose its shape, which in turn causes blurry vision. Some of the other symptoms of astigmatism include double vision, eyestrain, eye irritation, and headaches. It can be prevalent at birth or could be a result of trauma, congenital conditions or eye surgery. It can be very annoying as it makes a simple task like reading a book complicated.

However, there are several natural ways to treat astigmatism and one of them is eye exercises. Benefits of eye exercises for Astigmatism It’s true that there are eye exercises to treat astigmatism. Just like the other muscles in our body, our eye muscles also work on a simple logic of keeping them in use them or else you lose them. Therefore, it is important that you keep your eye muscles active throughout the day. Other than by staring straight at the computer screen or at the road ahead while driving doesn’t exercise the muscles to their full potential, additional eye exercises are must. Here are some benefits of eye exercises:

• Help to reduce the stress.
• Strengthen the eyes and relaxes the eye muscles.
• Improve vision over time or in between 1 to 4 weeks.

6 Eye Exercises to Treat Astigmatism

1. Eye Massage This exercise restores the shape of the cornea

• Close your eyes and keep your two fingers on each of your eyelids.
• By applying gentle pressure, slowly move your fingers in a circular motion from top to bottom and right to left.
• Move your fingers clockwise as well as anti-clockwise and repeat it for 10–15 times, 2 to 4 times a day.

2. Reading It helps to release the strain and pressure caused by astigmatism.

• Pull out a book.
• Place an object on the side. Focus on the side object after reading a paragraph from the book.
• It is advised to continue this until your eyes start to feel tired, 2-4 times a day.

3. Vision Breaks It relieves eye pressure and strain.

• Take a short break from writing, reading, or staring at the computer.
• Focus for 20 seconds on other objects that are kept in the distance
• Repeat the exercise as many times as possible in a day.

4. Head Tilting It helps the extraocular muscles to regulate the force they exert on the eyeball.

• After looking in the mirror, find out if you tilt your head to one side.
• Spend time every day to tilt your head in the opposite direction.

5. Eye Yoga It strengthens eye muscles, sharpens focus and improves vision.

• Stand, sit in the chair or on the floor and keep your posture straight.
• Close your eyes and breathe while concentrating.
• Slowly and start moving your eyeballs from side to side.
• Do this exercise several times a day.

6. Rectus muscle relaxation: It relaxes the rectus muscles and can be done in the following steps

• Place your thumb just above the nose, move it clockwise and leave it there for 2-3 seconds.
• Move your thumb back to the original position. Now, move it to 1 o’clock position, then to 3,5, so on and back to 12. You can do this exercise 2-4 times per day.
• Don’t forget to breathe while you are moving the thumb from the center out and slowly exhale to relax your muscles.

Daily performing these exercises will reduce the symptoms and eventually treat astigmatism. But make sure to consult your eye doctor to find out if these exercises will work for you. See Also: Exercise benefits your eyes