You probably already know all about focusing muscle spasms.
That spasm, the beginning of all myopia. The “pseudo” myopia, that first landed you in the optometrist’s exam room chair.
That muscle spasm, that got you into glasses.
If you’re working on getting your eyes back to healthy, you’re spending a fair amount of your better habits on reducing close-up strain, and the focusing muscle (ciliary) spasm. Though unfortunately you won’t be completely avoiding your eye’s focusing muscle locking up in close-up mode, if you spend several hours in front of your computer.
Here’s your ciliary muscle working properly, before spasm:
Moving that lens for clear close-up and distance vision.
You might already know the fix for stopping focusing muscle spasms:
Take a break, go outside, challenge your eyes by reading distant writing.
Not just going for a walk. The challenging yourself to read text at a distance is key. This is where your eye’s focusing muscle is supposed to go into the fully relaxed mode. Actively challenging yourself or that provides stimulus to help the ciliary relax.
If you compare you morning (pre work at computer) distance vision, to your distance vision at the end of a long day at the office, you notice the impact of that close-up strain clearly.
You just can’t see as well far away, even just in the span of one work day.
Getting outside can help mitigate most of that problem. It’s important to stay out there until your distance vision returns to the same clarity as it was in the morning. I refer to it as the ciliary pop, that noticeable change where your vision just pops, clears back up to how it should be.
Pretend the street signs are eye charts.
This works a lot better if you catch a sunny day, and don’t wear sunglasses (don’t look right at the sun, obviously!). More natural daylight, faster ciliary pop. It may only take 15-20 minutes to get there, as opposed to an hour in less sunny condition. Of course a lot also depends on how much strain proceeded the walk.
Five Easy Steps To The Ciliary Pop:
You’re far less likely to ever need stronger glasses, if you make this part of your daily routine.
And if you’re already working on improving your vision, making sure you get your focusing muscle relaxed will help get you the best results from the other habit changes.
Here’s how you do it:
1) Make Sure You’re Not Over Prescribed
If everything looks clear from behind your glasses, all the time, you won’t be able to notice the ciliary spasm in the first place. It’s also greatly increasing your risk of progressive myopia.
So first step, make sure you’re getting 20/20 to 20/30 rather than 20/15 or 20/10 on an eye chart (if you don’t have one, just print one out!). This is a pretty wide ranging topic, look around here for more on prescriptions.
2) Find A Landmark With Some Writing
A billboard, a shop across the street, a street sign. Anything that’s far enough away to where you can read the sign, but it requires some effort. Do this in the morning, before you have a bunch of close-up strain time.
Take note of your exact position to your chosen landmark, so you can compare your vision clarity later.
3) Test Your Eyesight In The Morning
Best to have the landmark where you’ll be throughout the day, for this. In the morning, check to make sure your landmark works well – you can read, but it’s a challenge.
4) Test Your Eyesight After 4+ Hours Of Work
Same landmark, same distance. Can you still read the sign? If it looks exactly the same then perhaps a) you already have great habits and not straining your eyes (possible though not the most likely). Or b) there was not enough challenge there in the morning. Re-assess the next day. Make sure the distance is challenging.
If you did it right, you can’t quite read the same sign anymore now. Congratulations, your focusing muscle is in “lock up” mode. You just witnessed the roots of all myopia, first hand.
5) Walk Around, Challenge Your Eyes To Read
Car license plates, street signs, shop windows. Actively looking straight ahead, and challenging yourself for clarity. Remember to be patient, this isn’t a magic miracle cure. This is exploring the subtle changes in your eye, when you change your vision habits.
You’ll notice, anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour in, that you can see more clearly. Enjoy your walk, don’t be all white-knuckled and obsessing. Just walk and read some signs. Should be easy and fun. Once you notice that suddenly a blurry looking sign just clears up, you’ve got the ciliary pop.
Spasm gone.
Pop. Things are moving properly again.
And that’s it. The less time your ciliary spends in lock up mode, the less you’re contributing to the sort of stimulus that contributes to your increasing myopia.
Left: distance vision, relaxed muscle. Right: close-up vision, tight muscle.
If you clear up ciliary spasm every day, and if you take breaks soon enough that it only takes half hour or less to clear up ciliary spasm, your risk of increasing myopia is greatly reduced. Combined with not ever wearing your full distance prescription for close-up work, this can go a long way towards maintaining healthy eyesight.
Cheers,
-Jake
