Pactiveresbyopia
Note: If you have presbyopia, drop me a line in the forum! We may have to make various small adjustments as far as your individual differential correction and close-up habits are concerned. Let me know your current (if any) presbyopia correction and close-up habits in a quick forum post.
Forum
This is separate from the community forum – where you’ll find fellow participants (both paid and DIY), though there not direct support from me.
For direct support from me, always use the support link on top of the page here.
Measuring
when we measure our cms, snellen chart and outside landmark. Do we always measure it with one eye closed?
–> both eyes together is best
My status
Hi Jake,
I just started my journy to 20/20. I'm 46 and have -0.75D presbyopia so as the "Welcome To The Rabbit Hole" recommends, I need your professional guide on the small adjustments.
My measure distance with naked eyes: 25cm
My differential glasses: -4.25D/-4.75D, distance is 70cm, snellen 20/50
My normalized glasses: -5.00D/-5.50D, distance is 90cm, snellen 20/25
Thank you,
When you get up do not put on your glasses or contacts.
Tomorrow morning spend the first 20 minutes without glasses. Your glasses have made your eyes lazy. This will not do anything whatsoever to improve your vision so there is no need to spend more time without glasses.
This is merely an exercise to create an active context.
Take the time to feel for a ‘pressure’ on the back of your eyes.
After 20 minutes, put on the glasses or contacts.
When we start the day with those glasses off, we are gradually letting the brain know there is a problem. We don’t just start going around without glasses because we don’t want to send the system into panic mode. We just nudge it with 20 minutes in the morning.
Not wearing your glasses for distance focus and living with blur offers no benefits.
Truly, early myopia (-1.00 to -1.75 diopters) is just a stress symptom.
Can you see your computer screen well without glasses?
If you have a -4.00 correction, not wearing glasses for computer work is not an option. You will need a reduced correction, which we’ll talk about soon.
If your correction is less than -2.00, you can probably see your screen well enough. In that case, start a habit of never wearing your glasses for close-up.
Find a countdown timer, either an egg timer or a program on your smartphone. Set it to 20 minutes. ANY time you are reading or working at the computer, start the countdown. Once it completes, STOP looking at the screen or page.
Take five minutes, get up, walk around and actively scan for something at a distance. Moving objects ideally; tree branches or birds, it doesn’t matter.
This may sound intrusive but it’s just something to do for the first two weeks, as much as possible, to push the envelope of reasonable use of your eyes.
In two weeks you can go to 45 minute breaks, and in two weeks more up to 1.5 hours. But you do want the breaks, to start building that awareness of strain.
Distance
Start close enough that the text is perfectly clear and slowly move back until there is the tiniest bit of blur. You want to stop just where the text stops being totally sharp. Any change in sharpness, that’s your distance.
That -4.50 diopters is just another way of saying, “22 centimeters till blur”.
If you start to see the tiniest bit of blur on the page at 22 centimters then you need exactly a -4.50 diopter correction to see an eye chart clearly, past the 20/20 line.
The next simplest option is to take your centimeter, convert into diopters and subtract 1.50 diopters.
Glasses
If you did and you have all the numbers and no questions, order yourself a differential correction. Zennioptical.com is a good site
Keep it inexpensive, the first differential correction is rarely used more than 4-6 weeks. Do make sure to get AR coating
Active focus
That ciliary muscle Involuntary muscle control. Like your lungs and your heart.
However … guru Jake says, you can gain (somewhat) conscious control over this muscle.
Once you have your differential correction, NEVER again wear your full minus for close-up. Never, ever.
https://courses.endmyopia.org/lessons/strategies-for-active-focus-control/
With your differential correction, you can see clearly to 60cm. At 65 cm, there’s a bit of blur. At 70cm, there’s a lot of blur.
So what you want to do now, is look at that range, 60-65cm.
Stare at the slightly blurred text. Now blink at it, “willing” the blur to clear up. Know that you can, and realize that it’s a big leap to connect to the focusing muscle.
It might take an hour, a day, a week. A month.
Onc you got it once, the second time will be much sooner and easier. And the next one even easier.
The more time you spend close to your maximum distance, the less eye strain you get.
https://endmyopia.org/how-to-finding-active-focus/
Asleep-Power
1 year ago
Relax yourself and your eyes. Close them, then blink sofly with longer blinks
Breath deeply and clear your mind. Almost reaching a meditative state
Open your eyes and aim for a specific letter that's blurry but that you can recognize. This is called central fixation. Don't aim for the entire word
Repeat 1 and 2 until the letter then entire word clears up. Don't force it, relax your eyes and let the word come to you. Remember you are training your mind and eyes to connect.
If you are having a hard time. Take a step forward and try again. Then take a step back. Also it's easier to start in daylight with street signs
Outdoor
Make it two half our segments, if need be. If you can make it a half hour in the morning, and 20 minutes after 2 hours at the computer, and a half hour in the evening .. that much better. If it all adds up to two hours a day, really that would be excellent.
The Bates crowd thinks that strange ideas like “palming” (sticking your hands in front of your eyes), or blinking or rolling your eyes will give you better distance vision. Other think that wearing plus lenses while reading will give you better distance vision (as if). And others yet believe that pills will give you better distance vision.
But no. Distance vision will give you better distance vision.
Glasses can severely limit your peripheral vision.
Especially the current trend for thick plastic frames, combined with myopia over two diopters, create an almost complete barrier to your peripheral vision. You have a tangible “border” in front of your eyes, and on top of it, everything beyond the border is very blurred.
For low myopes, spending time without glasses, and in your mind “zooming out” to see the whole of your field of vision is all you need. Doing this while outdoors, for 15-20 minutes a day is lots of good stimulus for your eyes.
And if your myopia is higher, getting an inexpensive contact lens pack to use when you are outside to pull focus, will give you the same benefits.
Spend 10 to 15 minutes being in your peripheral vision. Even if you are in an office, in front of a computer, defocus from time to time, and become simply aware of how much more information is entering your brain, than you consciously perceive.
Things to Know
20 minute mornings without glasses
frequent close-up breaks
eye chart on order or printed
a log for your centimeters
Don’t wear your full correction glasses for close-up use.
Stay at the far end of your focal distance while up-close (meaning, close to blur)
“Push” yourself into a bit of blur, blink, try to find active focus, the experience of a bit of blur clearing up
Food
Really it is only one ingredient (for now): Carrot juice.
Alternately, organic carrots are our recommendation.
We do not recommend sugar in your diet in general, as such it is best to not exceed the recommended juice quota.
Do not peel organic carrots. The outer layers are very nutrient dense.
We recommend having the drink within an hour of having had a source of omega-3 fatty acids.
Walmart organic carrot:
https://www.walmart.ca/en/ip/carrots-organic/6000197059729
Actions
While outside, take a moment to experience the difference between wearing glasses and not wearing them.
Action Items
Set yourself a reminder to push focus while working. If you just get 5 minutes at a time, you’re doing great!
It’s simply a matter of taking a few minutes while you work, read, or type to stay in a bit of blur and blink (active focus) to clear it up. 10-12 times a day is more than enough, and will become barely noticeably as it becomes habit. This will help build the habit of staying at the far end of your close-up focal plane, and get some stimulus.
Increase awareness of how you feel when you take off your glasses. Be aware when you put on your glasses. Awareness of blur and focus, and how you feel about both, is important.
From Andrew’s video
Normalized: slightly undercorrected distance glasses usually 0.25 below full strength
Full strength: 20/20, what a decent non-overprescribing optician gives you
Differentials: About 1-2 diopters below full strength used exclusively for close-up work
Hat Glasses
In particular, sunglass treats. Generally speaking, I advocate against sunglasses. We want lots of (shaded) U.V. exposure. A hat and no glass obstruction in front of your eyes is ideal.
Progress
I can almost guarantee you a 0.75 to 1 diopter improvement a year, every year.
Then again, after the next 45 minutes, during your break, be aware of how your eyes feel.
Check your distance vision. Casually check your centimeter. Is it the same? Different? It’s perfectly fine if it’s all the same. We aren’t looking for change, we’re just looking for awareness. Strain awareness. Maybe the first three 45 minute intervals are fine. Maybe it’s after the 5th one, that you start to notice a difference.
Focal change
From time to time, take off your differential correction (reading glasses). Take 5-10 minutes, adjusting your distance from the page or screen as necessary, to be able to see just clearly enough to continue reading or working. Move back a little bit, play with the blur distance while you are engaged in your activity. This is no real substitute for a proper break, but it can help prevent the ciliary lock in and resulting accommodation spasm that happens otherwise. Also a good exercise even if you are taking proper breaks, adding another dimension of focal plane change and encouraging movement while you are at this close up range.
Note: If you are very high myopia, this trick may not work for you. You might get some +1 reading glasses though, to put over your differential for just 5-10 minutes. Yes it’s a bit weird, but reading glasses are cheap and you might find that you enjoy the focal plane change.
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