Getting regular eye checkups is just one of many ways you can improve your eyesight and prevent injuries or illnesses that could harm your vision. Keep reading to learn other ways you can improve your vision.

Now we will know how to improve eyesight.

1. Get enough key vitamins and minerals

Vitamins A, C, and E, as well as the mineral zinc, contain antioxidants that can help prevent macular degeneration. It’s a condition in which the macula — the part of the eye that controls central vision — deteriorates.

Food sources for these important nutrients include a variety of colorful vegetables and fruits, such as:

carrots

red peppers

broccoli

spinach

strawberries

sweet potato

citrus

Foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids, such as salmon and flaxseed, are also recommended for better eye health.

2. Don’t forget the carotenoids

A few other nutrients are also keys to improving eyesight. Among them are lutein and zeaxanthin, which are carotenoids found in the retina. You can also find them in leafy green vegetables, broccoli, zucchini, and eggs.

Lutein and zeaxanthin can also be taken in supplement form. These carotenoids help protect the macula by improving pigment density in that part of the eye, and absorbing ultraviolent and blue light.

3. Stay fit

Yes, exercise and maintaining a healthy weight can help your eyes, not just your waistline. Type 2 diabetes, which is more common in people who are overweight or obese, can cause damage to the tiny blood vessels in the eyes.

This condition is called diabetic retinopathyTrusted Source. Too much sugar circulating in your bloodstream injures the delicate walls of your arteries. Diabetic retinopathy causes the very small arteries in your retina — the light-sensitive back part of the eye — to leak blood and fluid into the eye, harming your vision.

Getting your blood sugar levels checked regularly and staying fit and trim can lower your odds of developing type 2 diabetes and its many complications.

4. Manage chronic conditions

Diabetes isn’t the only disease that can affect your vision. Other conditionsTrusted Source, such as high blood pressure and multiple sclerosis, can affect your eyesight. These conditions are linked to chronic inflammation, which can harm your health from head to toe.

Inflammation of the optic nerve, for example, can cause pain and even complete vision loss. While a disease such as multiple sclerosis can’t be prevented, you can try to manage it with healthy habits and medications.

High blood pressure can be effectively treated with a heart-healthy diet, exercise and antihypertensive medications.

5. Wear protective eyewear

Whether you’re playing racquetball, working in your garage, or doing a science experiment in school, it’s vital that you protect your eyes with appropriate eyewear.

Tough, protective eyewear is essential if there is a risk of chemicals, sharp objects, or materials such as wood shavings, metal shards, or even a stray elbow during a basketball game, entering your eye.

Many protective gogglesTrusted Source are made with a type of polycarbonate, which is about 10 times tougher than other forms of plastic.

Shop for protective goggles.

6. That includes sunglasses

Sunglasses aren’t just for looking cool. Wearing shades is one of the most important steps you can take when it comes to improving your eyesight. You want sunglasses that block out 99 to 100 percentTrusted Source of UVA and UVB radiation from sunlight.

Sunglasses help protect your eyes from conditions that stem from eye damage. These include cataracts, macular degeneration, and pterygium — a growth of tissue over the white part of the eye. Pterygiums can lead to astigmatismTrusted Source, which can cause blurred vision.

Wearing a wide-brimmed hat can also help protect your eyes from sun damage.

7. Follow the 20-20-20 rule

Your eyes work hard during the day and need a break now and then. The strain can be especially intense if you work at a computer for long stretches at a time. To ease the strain, follow the 20-20-20 ruleTrusted Source.

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That means every 20 minutes, you should stop staring at your computer and look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds.

8. Quit smoking

You know smoking is bad for your lungs and your heart, not to mention your hair, skin, teeth, and just about every other body part. That includes your eyes, too. Smoking dramatically raises your risk of developing cataracts and age-related macular degeneration.

Fortunately, your eyes, lungs, heart, and other body parts can start to recover from years of tobacco-induced harm within the first hours of quitting. And the longer you can avoid cigarettes, the more your blood vessels will benefit and inflammation will ease off throughout your eyes and the rest of you.

9. Learn your family’s eye health history

Some eye conditions are hereditaryTrusted Source, so being aware of eye conditions that your parents or grandparents had can help you take precautions.

Hereditary conditions include:

glaucoma

retinal degeneration

age-related macular degeneration

optic atrophy

Understanding your family history can help you take early precautions

10. Keep your hands and lenses clean

Your eyes are especially vulnerable to germs and infections. Even things that just irritate your eyes can affect your vision. For those reasons, you should always wash your hands before touching your eyes or handling your contact lenses.

It’s also super important to wash your hands and disinfect your contact lensesTrusted Source as instructed.

You should also replace your contact lenses as advised by the manufacturer or your doctor. Germs in your contact lenses can lead to bacterial infections of the eyes.

The bottom line

You may not associate washing your hands, eating your vegetables, or watching your weight as key steps toward better eyesight, but they all play a role.

Living a healthier lifestyle and protecting your eyes from the sun and foreign objects can’t protect against every eye condition. But they can all lower your odds of developing a problem that could hurt your vision.

Eye Exercises: How-to, Efficacy, Eye Health, and More

Overview

For centuries, people have promoted eye exercises as a “natural” cure for vision problems, including eyesight. There’s very little credible scientific evidence suggesting that eye exercises can improve vision. However, exercises can help with eyestrain and may help your eyes feel better.

If you have a common eye condition, like myopia (near-sightedness), hyperopia (far-sightedness), or astigmatism, you probably won’t benefit from eye exercises. People with the most common eye diseases, including age-related macular degeneration, cataracts, and glaucoma, will also see little benefit from eye exercises.

Eye exercises probably won’t improve your vision, but they can help with eye comfort, especially if your eyes get irritated at work.

A condition known as digital eye strain is common among people working at computers all day. This condition can cause:

dry eyes

eye strain

blurred vision

headaches

A few simple eye exercises may help you improve digital eye strain symptoms.

How to exercise your eyes

Here are a few different types of eye exercises that you can try, depending on your needs.

Focus change

This exercise works by challenging your focus. It should be done from a seated position.

Hold your pointer finger a few inches away from your eye.

Focus on your finger.

Slowly move your finger away from your face, holding your focus.

Look away for a moment, into the distance.

Focus on your outstretched finger and slowly bring it back toward your eye.

Look away and focus on something in the distance.

Repeat three times.

Near and far focus

This is another focus exercise. As with the previous one, it should be done from a seated position.

Hold your thumb about 10 inches from your face and focus on it for 15 seconds.

Find an object roughly 10 to 20 feet away, and focus on it for 15 seconds.

Return your focus to your thumb.

Repeat five times.

Figure eight

This exercise should be done from a seated position as well.

Pick a point on the floor about 10 feet in front of you and focus on it.

Trace an imaginary figure eight with your eyes.

Keep tracing for 30 seconds, then switch directions.

20-20-20 rule

Eye strain is a real problem for a lot of people. Human eyes are not supposed to be glued to a single object for extended periods of time. If you work at a computer all day, the 20-20-20 rule may help prevent digital eye strain. To implement this rule, every 20 minutes, look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds.

What is vision therapy?

Some doctors specialize in a field of treatment called vision therapy. Vision therapy may include eye exercises, but only as part of a more specialized treatment program done under the supervision of an eye doctor, optometrist, or ophthalmologist.

The goal of vision therapy can be to strengthen the eye muscles. It also can help to retrain poor visual behavior, or help with eye tracking issues. Conditions that may be treated with vision therapy, often affecting children and sometimes adults, include:

convergence insufficiency (CI)

strabismus (cross-eye or walleye)

amblyopia (lazy eye)

dyslexia

Tips for eye health

There are many things you can do in addition to eye exercise to keep your eyes healthy.

Get a comprehensive dilated eye exam every few years. Get an exam even if you haven’t noticed problems. Many people don’t even realize they could see better with corrective lenses. And many serious eye diseases don’t have noticeable symptoms.

Know your family history. Many eye diseases are genetic.

Know your risk. If you’re at increased risk for eye problems because you have diabetes or a family history of eye disease, see your eye doctor every six months­ to a year

Wear sunglasses. Protect your eyes from damaging UV rays with polarized sunglasses that block out both UVA and UVB light.

Eat healthy. A diet full of healthy fats and antioxidants may help keep eyes healthy. And, yes, eat those carrots! They are a great source of vitamin A, which is an important nutrient for eye health.

If you need glasses or contact lenses, wear them. Wearing corrective lenses will not weaken your eyes.

Quit smoking or never start. Smoking is bad for your whole body, including your eyes.

Takeaway

There’s no science to back up the claim that eye exercises improve people’s vision. It’s possible that eye exercises won’t help you, but they can’t hurt either. It’s also important to have your eyes checked regularly by an eye doctor. They can often detect and treat problems before noticeable symptoms begin.

Last medically reviewed on February 20, 2022

3 Eye Exercises to Help Strabismus

What is strabismus?

Strabismus is often referred to as crossed eyes, but it can present in several different ways. The American Optometric Association defines strabismus as a “condition in which both eyes do not look at the same place at the same time.” It can present as one eye drifting inward (esotropia), outward (exotropia), upward (hypertropia), or downward (hypotropia). This misalignment is often due to incongruities, such as the eye’s inability to focus properly on a point off in the distance.

Strabismus most often occurs in babies and toddlers due to heredity or problems during physical development. Most cases in children are caused by poor communication between the brain, muscles, and nerves of the eye. However, it can also occur in adults who have suffered a stroke, head trauma, or diabetes. The condition can lead to double vision, a lack of depth perception, and even loss of eyesight if left untreated

How is strabismus treated?

Treatments range from prescription eyewear to surgery to align the eyes. However, many vision therapy programs now incorporate exercises for the eyes as well. These can help to improve coordination.

Exercises should not be considered a substitute for medical treatment. “Because the causes and manifestations of strabismus vary widely, patient-driven eye exercises alone should not be considered as an exclusive treatment,” says Dr. Jeffrey Anshel, founding president of the nonprofit Ocular Nutrition Society. “An orthoptist or optometrist can properly assess the situation and prescribe a regimen designed to address specific symptoms.”

Bottom line: Be sure to get a thorough eye examination before you start a vision treatment plan.

Pencil pushups

Pencil pushups are simple ocular workouts that get both eyes aimed on the same fixed point. They are also known as near point of convergence exercisesTrusted Source.

Start by holding a pencil out at arm’s length, pointing away from you. Focus your gaze on the eraser or a letter or numeral on the side. Slowly move the pencil toward the bridge of your nose. Keep it in focus for as long as you can, but stop once your vision gets blurry.

Brock string

Swiss optometrist Frederick Brock developed this exercise to improve eye coordination. You’ll need a string about 5 feet long with three different colored beads.

Secure one end of the string to a stationary point such as a handrail or the back of a chair. Space the beads out at equal distances. Hold the other end of the string tightly to your nose.

You should see a consistent pattern as you shift your focus from bead to bead. The bead you are looking at will appear by itself at the intersection of two identical strings with doubles of the other beads, forming an X. Your eyes are not properly focused on the bead if you see the strings crossing in front of the bead or in back of the bead. Be sure you can get the X at all beads (except the one at the far end, which will just have the two strings coming out toward you in a V).

Reposition the beads along the string and continue the exercise.

Barrel cards

This is a handy exercise for exotropia. Draw three barrels of progressive size in red lengthwise on one side of a card. Do the same thing in green on the other side.

Hold the card lengthwise and vertically against your nose so that the largest barrel is furthest away. Stare at the far barrel until it becomes one image with both colors and the other two barrel images have doubled.

Maintain your gaze for about five seconds. Then repeat with the middle and smallest barrel images.

Blurry Vision in the Morning: 10 Reasons Why You May Have It

Blurry vision in the morning

Blurry vision in one or both eyes in the morning happens to a lot of people. In most cases, you have nothing to worry about, and clear vision will return after blinking or rubbing your eyes.

But a question remains, why do some people have blurry vision in the morning?

Why you might have blurry vision in the morning

Whether you have blurry vision every morning after waking up or only sporadically, here’s a look at 10 possible reasons.

1. Dry tears

Tears lubricate, nourish, and protect your eyes, and you’re constantly producing tears even while asleep.

Sometimes, however, your nightly tears can dry on the surface of your eyes, causing blurry, hazy vision in the morning. Blinking a few times after waking up can remoisten your cornea and get rid of blurriness.

2. Eye allergies

Allergies can cause itchy, swollen, watery eyes, as well as dry eyes resulting in blurry vision after waking up.

If you experience worsening eye allergies in the mornings, the problem might be dust mites or pet dander in your bedroom. You might also be allergic to detergent used to wash your bedding.

3. Sleeping on your face

Sleeping face down can cause a condition known as floppy eyelid syndrome (FES). This is when the upper eyelid loses elasticity.

This can trigger blurry vision in the mornings, as well as tearing and eye burning. FES can happen to anyone, but it’s more common in obese men.

4. Fuchs’ corneal dystrophy

This condition causes cornea swelling while asleep, resulting in cloudy vision in the mornings. Vision gradually improves throughout the day.

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Fuchs’ corneal dystrophy is more common in women than men, with symptoms typically developing around age 50.

5. Taking certain medications before bedtime

Antihistamines, sleeping aids, cold medicines, and high blood pressure medicines can reduce tear production while asleep. If taken before bed, you may experience blurry vision and dry eyes in the morning.

6. Sleeping with contact lenses

Sleeping in your contact lenses can reduce the oxygen supply to your eyes, leading to dry eyes and blurry vision after waking up. You should always take them out before falling asleep.

7. Drinking alcohol before bedtime

You might also have temporary blurriness in the mornings if you enjoyed a cocktail before bed. Alcohol causes dehydration, which can trigger dry eyes and blurriness.

8. Blood sugar problems

Blood sugar that’s too high or too low can also be the underlying cause of morning blurriness. In this case, however, you’ll have other symptoms such as dizziness and weakness.

High blood sugar can be an early warning sign ofdiabetes.

9. Oil gland problems

Sometimes, the tiny oil glands around your eyes (meibomian glands) produce too little oil and water while asleep. This can lead to eye irritation and blurry vision in the morning.

10. Sleeping underneath a fan

Sleeping with a fan might provide the perfect nighttime room temperature. However, sleeping it can dry out your skin and eyes — even when your eyelids are closed. This can trigger itchy, irritated, and blurry vision.

Do you need to see your doctor?

You don’t need to see a doctor when blurriness goes away after blinking or rubbing your eyes, or when it’s sporadic with a clear cause.

But you shouldn’t ignore unexplained, persistent blurry vision, or vision problems accompanied by other symptoms. Make an appointment with your doctor for a diagnosis.

Blurry vision in the morning could be a sign of a stroke, which is a medical emergency. If you’re having a stroke, you may have other symptoms like:

dizziness

a headache

tingling or numbness on one or both sides of your body

slurred speech

Similarly, a head injury and concussion before bed might cause blurry vision in the morning. Other symptoms of a concussion include:

lack of coordination

a headache

nausea

dizziness

ringing in the ear

Diagnosis

If eye allergies cause blurry vision, your doctor might make a diagnosis after observing your symptoms (red, watery, itchy eyes). In such a scenario, allergy eye drops can improve blurriness.

Other times, however, your doctor may need to run tests to determine the underlying cause. This includes a comprehensive eye exam to measure visual acuity, as well as a test to check your optic nerve, cornea, and retina.

An eye dilation exam also helps diagnose the cause of blurry vision. Your doctor will place special eyedrops in your eyes to widen your pupil, which then allows your doctor to see the back of your eyes.

Other examinations include a test to measure tear production and the time it takes for your tears to evaporate.

Certain tests might be necessary based on your symptoms. For example, your doctor may check your blood glucose level if you have blurry eyes in the morning accompanied by fatigue, increased urination, and excessive hunger.

Treatment options

Blurry vision in the morning may not require treatment. Unless, of course, it’s the result of a medical condition. In this case, treatment depends on the cause.

Once you’ve treated the underlying cause, your blurry vision should improve.

For example, if cornea swelling causes blurry vision, your doctor may prescribe eyedrops to remove excess water from your cornea. In the case of eye allergies, however, taking an antihistamine can reduce allergy symptoms and stop blurriness.

Shop for antihistamines.

Applying lubricating eyedrops before going to sleep or upon waking up can remoisten your eyes. This might prevent or get rid of blurriness.

Shop for lubricating eyedrops.

Prevention

Here are a few other tips to prevent blurry vision in the morning:

Drink plenty of fluid to keep your body hydrated (including your eyes).

Don’t drink alcohol before bed.

Dust your bedroom and wash bedding frequently.

Don’t sleep in your contact lenses. Clean your contact lens case daily.

Don’t sleep with a fan on, or pointed directly at your face.

Sleep on your back or side, not face down.

Sleep at least 7-8 hours a night. Poor sleep quality may contribute to blurry vision.

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