What’s the Bates Method of Natural Eye Improvement?

Are you interested in improving your eyesight? There’s a lot you can always learn out there in the world. Meanwhile, you have probably heard of the Bates method that is supposed to help you improve your eyesight naturally.

Is it worth the hype? Keep it here to find out.

What Is It?

The Bates Method is essentially a therapy that is designed to improve eyesight. It is the brainchild of one Dr. William Horatio Bates and as you can see, the method was named after him. Anyway, he linked almost all eyesight issues to frequent eye-straining and felt that glasses were unnecessary and even harmful to some extent.

In view, of that, he came up with some techniques that help relax the eye muscles and reduce strain. Why don’t we go right into the techniques?

Palming

For this technique, all you have to do is cup your hands over your eyes and as you do that, ensure that light doesn’t get in. After cupping, you want to rest your arms somewhere comfortable like on a pillow or table. Keep your palms over your eyes and your arms in a comfortable position for about five minutes. This will help relax your eyes.

Swinging

With this technique, you are required to move either your body or head from side to side and look attentively at whatever is in front of you. For best results, you can put an object in front of your eyes and look at it with your hand moving side to side. This exercise is supposed to help your eyes focus.

Sunning

Here, you are supposed to close your eyes and directly face a bright artificial light or the sun. Once that is done, move your head side to side and imagine looking at a faraway object even if your eyes are closed. This should be done for only a few minutes. You also want to alternate it with palming for the best results.

Eye Chart

In this technique, you are supposed to relax your eyes and then stare at a Snellen chart from a distance with naked eyes. You then want to consciously strain your eyes and look at the chart again. You will realize that your vision changes and the characters in the chart appear clearer at times.

If you are wondering where to get the Snellen chart, it is available on Amazon or you can download it from the internet and print it out.

Central Fixation

According to Dr. Bates, there is a region where the eyes see most clearly at the center of your visual field. He also states that central vision is better than peripheral vision. If you shift your head or your eyes, you get to see how central fixation works.

The point here then is to practice shifting the eyes so that you can see things in the area where your vision is best instead of staring at things.

Small Print Reading

This exercise simply involves reading small print for a few minutes with your naked eyes. According to Dr. Bates, this is beneficial for the eyes.

Final Thoughts

Some people swear by the Bates method of natural eye improvement while others have reported that it did nothing major for them. Ultimately, you would have to try the exercises and decide for yourself. The best part is that they are easy to do and won’t cost anything.