As we age, many of us over the age of 45 start to experience reduced near vision. This is a natural process called presbyopia. The symptoms can include difficulty seeing menus and text in dim lighting, having to hold reading material further away, and having trouble reading small print. 

Presbyopia? Don't Give Up on Clear Vision Yet!

Presbyopia can be treated with glasses, contact lenses, or a new drop that provides clear vision by reducing your pupil size, called Vuity. 

Some eye doctors also recommend a unique solution: eye exercises to increase the eyes' flexibility. Although we may be fighting a natural decline in our eyesight, recent studies have shown that our vision remains adaptable even beyond 43-44 years old, allowing for functional improvements in vision if approached correctly.

This approach has proven to be effective in improving vision well beyond the typical age of onset for presbyopia. With these exercises, we can potentially slow down or even reverse the effects of age-related vision loss.

Exercise 1 for Presbyopia: Push Up Accommodation

The first exercise is called the push up accommodation. This exercise involves the use of small print and helps in maintaining the eyes' ability to focus at different distances. Here's what you need to do:

• Cut out a small square of print material (newspaper, magazine article) of about 2x2 inches, with enough letters to make it clear.
• Cover one eye and hold the print material at a distance where you can keep it clear. If you're already in your 50s or 60s, you might need reading glasses.
• Keep moving the material in closer to yourself until it blurs, and then slowly move it away until it becomes clear again. This movement will help flex the muscles around the eye and change the shape of the lens, making it more robust and bigger.
• Repeat the same process for 3 cycles, taking a minute break in between each cycle.
• Repeat the same process for the other eye.

Exercise 2 for Presbyopia: Jump Accommodation

The second exercise is called jump accommodation. This exercise involves looking at near and distance information to train the eyes to make changes quickly. Here's what you need to do:

• Close one eye and hold the small print material at a point where it's comfortable and clear.
• Keep a chart or picture that you can recognize as clear or not, across the room (10 to 12 feet away).
• Look at the near information and make it clear. Then, jump to the distance information and make that clear. Look back at the near information and repeat the process.
• Repeat the same process for the same duration as the other eye.

Perceptual training for Presbyopia

Studies have found that perceptual training can improve vision in people with presbyopia, a condition that makes it harder to see up close as you age. The training improves their visual acuity, contrast sensitivity, and reading speed, and the results show that these improvements are not due to improved optics of the eye. The training may work by increasing the sensitivity of neurons in the brain and the processing speed, making it easier to "de-blur" the images and retrieve information from them. These studies provide evidence that while presbyopia is an inevitable part of aging, training can help overcome its effects and improve quality of life for older people. Perceptual training requires specialized instruction and materials from our eye doctors, ask our doctor about perceptual training with Revital Vision.