aprilmarikko
New Member
Hey all, wanted to share some visual exercises for improving/maintaining eyesight. As you may know, working eyes are important for prospective pilots. As a college student who spends a lot of time studying, being inside, staring at screens, and engaging in generally reclusive behavior, I notice that my eyesight is noticeably (though marginally) worse after each semester. Here are some of the things I do to remedy that. I don't feel like linking a bunch of studies so you will have to take my word for it or do your own research. Embrace the broscience. Just be aware that this stuff is possible.
Lifestyle:
1. Stay hydrated and eat a healthy diet. Eat leafy greens, vegetables, fish, limit processed foods etc etc. Staying hydrated is very important. Why? I forget.
2. Get enough sleep---chronic sleep deprivation has a surprisingly strong link to myopia and other vision problems.
3. Go outside, especially when it's bright out. Spend some time outside on as many days as you can.
5. Meditation: this may sound crazy, but a consistent meditation improved my eyesight.
Exercises:
6. For depth perception: Practice focusing on close objects and then faraway objects. The transition is important. Focus on a nearby object, then jump to a faraway object, then back. It's easy to do this throughout the day. Related to #3, going outside lets you look much further than the size of your room. Funny enough, one of the "wives remedies" to bad vision is to "go to sea." Lots of super long distance sight lines.
7. Similarly, spend time on your weaknesses. I become myopic after staring at books and screens. So I spend time outside focusing hard on faraway things.
7. If you wear glasses, try to spend time without them when you can----your eyes end up adjusting to them. I've read anecdotal of people "weaning" themselves off of glasses by progressively adopting weaker prescriptions. But I don't wear glasses so what do I know.
8. Reading: read at the edge of your vision, keep your font sizes low, treat your eyes like a muscle.
9. Adequate lighting: don't read/do work in low light. Your eyes need light to operate. This actually won't damage your vision but will be uncomfortable, so avoid it.
A lot of this is woo-woo, mostly anecdotal, but my point is that is it people can maintain/improve their vision without expensive and invasive surgery.
Useful links:
https://www.ranprieur.com/me/eyes.html (good list of exercises)
https://www.mediacollege.com/3d/depth-perception/test.html (for depth perception. the letter chart doesn't always get people, sometimes it's depth perception.)
P.S. Moderators, if this is redundant or belongs somewhere else, please let me know and I will paste it there/delete this one.
Lifestyle:
1. Stay hydrated and eat a healthy diet. Eat leafy greens, vegetables, fish, limit processed foods etc etc. Staying hydrated is very important. Why? I forget.
2. Get enough sleep---chronic sleep deprivation has a surprisingly strong link to myopia and other vision problems.
3. Go outside, especially when it's bright out. Spend some time outside on as many days as you can.
5. Meditation: this may sound crazy, but a consistent meditation improved my eyesight.
Exercises:
6. For depth perception: Practice focusing on close objects and then faraway objects. The transition is important. Focus on a nearby object, then jump to a faraway object, then back. It's easy to do this throughout the day. Related to #3, going outside lets you look much further than the size of your room. Funny enough, one of the "wives remedies" to bad vision is to "go to sea." Lots of super long distance sight lines.
7. Similarly, spend time on your weaknesses. I become myopic after staring at books and screens. So I spend time outside focusing hard on faraway things.
7. If you wear glasses, try to spend time without them when you can----your eyes end up adjusting to them. I've read anecdotal of people "weaning" themselves off of glasses by progressively adopting weaker prescriptions. But I don't wear glasses so what do I know.
8. Reading: read at the edge of your vision, keep your font sizes low, treat your eyes like a muscle.
9. Adequate lighting: don't read/do work in low light. Your eyes need light to operate. This actually won't damage your vision but will be uncomfortable, so avoid it.
A lot of this is woo-woo, mostly anecdotal, but my point is that is it people can maintain/improve their vision without expensive and invasive surgery.
Useful links:
https://www.ranprieur.com/me/eyes.html (good list of exercises)
https://www.mediacollege.com/3d/depth-perception/test.html (for depth perception. the letter chart doesn't always get people, sometimes it's depth perception.)
P.S. Moderators, if this is redundant or belongs somewhere else, please let me know and I will paste it there/delete this one.