I being myopic since my school days, have dabbled with several methods for eye care, in general, over a period of time. I thought I’ll substantiate on some of the same, since not everything I’ve done is very well known and some of the things actually made me ponder about some basic details of the human eye. Knowing the same actually helps us form a understanding of what might be good for the eyes.:)
Here I go.
1:* The first thing to know about people suffering from **short** or **long sightedness** is that the reason we wear spectacles or lens is to correct the wrong natural image formation (by focusing light) on the retina through the natural lenses that our eyes possess, behind the pupil.
The correction factor through these artifical methods (spectacles, lenses) although effective in right vision formation, attunes our natural vision ability to these corrective methods, thereby reducing the quality of natural vision. Those with sensitive eyelids could also develop infection in eyelid glands owing to use of contact lenses for long periods. Hence it would be a **good practice to spend as much time as possible without these artifical aids**(perhaps in your free time) to help our natural eye mechanism to adapt and focus on our environment.
2:* It is important to **blink as much as possible** all the time. This helps keep the outer transparent covering of the eye (cornea) moist. Another way of doing the same would be to sprinkle water gently on the eyes from time to time, to keep it cool and moist.
The cornea besides being a protective covering for the eye also helps light pass into the inner layers of eye tissue, all the way to the retina. So, how well it lets the light pass also depends on how clear it is. With the lack of moisture, what would be a transparent corneal interface for the light to pass, becomes a translucent and hence a less effective medium. For the same reason, our vision is not constant throughout the day, although it may not be noticeable.
3:* One of the reasons we develop **short** or **long sightedness** over a period of time is that our ciliary muscles (at the edge of our eyes) alter their natural position and in turn affect the shape of our natural eye lenses, thus adversely impacting our vision by affecting passing of light through it, to the retina.
But the ciliary muscles are like several other muscles in our body. The stiffness in the muscles can be overcome with natural exercises. Like we employ neck rotation, hip rotation, limb movements etc to overcome stiffness of the hands, legs, neck and other body limbs. **Stiffness of the ciliary muscles can be overcome in similar fashion by regulated eyeball rotation towards left, right, up, down, circular movements and focusing on still and moving objects and so on**.
There is a former pilot by the name of Orlin Sorensen who employed regulated methods of the same to achieve significant natural correction in vision. He has his own "Rebuild Your Vision" program with that objective. I subscribed to it once before. Helped me improve my vision by -1.25 and -0.75 in 2 separate periods. ( https://rebuildyourvision.com)
The point here is once the ciliary muscles don’t get stuck in the wrong position, the natural lense (in our eyes) is able to attune itself more to right image formation through the retina.
4:* Another thing to note here is that the **practice of ’palming’ helps soothe the eyes to a large extent.** It is the practice of covering closed eyelids of your eyes in the darkness of your enclosed palms. Care must be taken however, that no pressure is exerted on the eyes in the process because the aim is not to put pressure on the eye muscles and the natural lenses that we possess.
When in darkness, our pupils contract and rod cells (neurons) in our eyes take over to perceive the surroundings. When in lighted surroundings, the pupils expand to let in more light into our eyes and cone cells (neurons) help with the same as colour perception becomes a factor.
But we typically spend too much time straining our eyes perceiving images in lighted surroundings, which is why practicing ’palming’ or simply resting in darkness every once in a while alternatively, exercises your eye muscles as well as gives due rest to your eyes.
5:* For the same reason as above, if your day to day regimen requires you to spend a lot of time staring at your computer / laptop screen, it might be good to adjust the brightness of the colors of your device to moderate levels beforehand.
Our eyes typically struggle to perceive lights of shorter wavelength and are more sensitive to those of longer wavelength. We look away from the brightness of the sun for the same reason. Hence, the suggestion.
6:* One artificial method **I sometimes subscribe to, is the usage of an "Aloe Vera" eye gel mask**. The basic premise of the intended effect is somewhat similar to ’palming’, although the benefits are manifold.
The "Aloe Vera" gel inside the mask, like we know has phytochemicals with soothing properties which also gives back colour to the skin in combination with some oils, glycerin and purified water. So, placing it over your closed eyes has a cooling effect, absorbing some of the heat from your eyes and surrounding skin.
It also has magnets inside the mask, and our blood haemoglobin being paramagnetic, this helps the constriction in our blood vessels (responsible for dark circles at times) by forcing the circulation of the blood around the eyes.
I found this eye gel mask to be relatively useful. But it also tends to induce a drowsy feeling.
Other than the above mentioned points, consuming the right vitamins and proteins would obviously help your eyes a great extent.
*However**, having said all this, I happen to know firsthand, that some of these activities may not be that inspiring. In fact, I don’t practice **#3** myself, nowadays and only do the others occasionally. Not because we don’t want our eyes to be in tip top condition, but we tend to get lost in the spoils of our day-to-day lives, doing other stuff.:D
But if you want it from a person who has tried all these things out, I can testify that they qualify as good advice for eye care for any mortal human being out there!;)