Eye exercises that relieve eye strain

Hi,
I found a nice article from medimanage.com.

Perform eye exercises at regular intervals

Follow the 20- 20 rule i.e. take a break every 20 minutes and focus on the area about 20 feet away for atleast 20 seconds to give your eyes a rest.

Blink your eyes for atleast 10 times after every 20 minutes of working on a gadget.

It is important to use the electronic gadgets for a shorter span of time. Washing the eyes frequently with cold water also helps to reduce eye strain.

A good exercise is Rotating your eyes, clockwise direction and then anticlockwise direction.
In our routine lifestyle, we generally have a straight vision, we rarely use our side vision and hence the side muscles from our eyes are not well exercised and becomes lazy. Exercising the eyes by rotating the eyeball (and not rotating the neck) helps to exercise all the eye muscles.

A few relaxing eye exercises that would help you relieve your eye strain.

1. Palming /cupping

The Palming or cupping exercise helps to relax your eyes.

Rub your palms together for about 15- 20 seconds or until they feel warm. Then place your cupped hands softy over your closed eyes without leaving any gaps between the fingers so that no light enter the eyes. (It is important to check that you do not apply pressure on your eye balls). Sit quietly with your hands over your eyes for one to two minutes and experience the darkness with your closed eye. Perform this exercise at least twice a day.

2. Concentrating on an object

Hold the pencil at an arm’s length from your eyes. Concentrate on the tip of the pencil. Slowly bring the pencil toward your nose and then back to the original position. Follow this exercise slowly without blinking your eyes. Perform this exercise 2-3 times in a day.

3. Hydrotherapy

Place a bowl of hot water and a bowl of cold water in front of you. The hot water should be hot but not so hot that it burns you, while the cold water should be ice cold. Put a clean soft cloth in each bowl. First place the cloth from hot bowl on your closed eye for 30 seconds. Then do the same with the cloth from the bowl of cold water. Continue to alternate the hot and cold cloth for at least 5 times. Finish by gently massaging your eye with a dry towel.

4. Head Rolls

Close your eyes and take a deep breath. As you exhale, move your chin slowly to your chest. Relax your neck and shoulders. As you inhale, slowly and gently roll your head around to the left, and then back to your chest, keeping the shoulder still and relaxed. Now exhale as you roll your head to the other side and down to your chest again. Repeat this sequence twice. This exercise will help you relax your neck, head and eye muscles.

5. Near far focus

Focus on a nearby object which is less than 10 m away for 10 seconds and then slowly refocus on a distant object over 50m away . Focus for several seconds on the distant object and then move your focus to the nearby object. Repeat this process for 5 times in a day

6. Up- down eye movements

Keep your face forward and without moving your head, focus your eyes as high as they can go. Then slowly move your eye line down to as low as they can go, without moving your head. Perform this exercise 8-10 times in a day.

7. Blinking

Blinking is a very simple eye exercise. Blink your eye every 2-3 second for two minutes continuously and you will keep your eyes refreshed. This exercise is generally recommended to individuals who work on the computer for a longer duration of time.

Benefits of eye exercises

Eye exercise help to relieve the stress of looking at a computer screen for a longer duration.
The ophthalmic nerves receive a richer supply of blood which makes the eye muscle strong and active gives a clearer and better vision.

ref: Original Document