Yoga for eyes is also called yogic eye exercises, which are the movement of eyes to strengthen the eye muscles and structure. People who do eye yoga often hope to enhance their vision, reduce eye strain, and treat dry eye symptoms. There is no proof to support these claims that eye yoga can correct eye conditions like nearsightedness, astigmatism, or farsightedness. No workout has been found that can make the vision clear.
That does not mean that eye yoga has no benefits. There is some evidence that shows that eye yoga might increase the focus ability and relieve eye strain.
Benefits Of Eye Yoga
Table of Contents
The research about the eye yoga benefits is mixed. Some conditions are shown to help, while others its most likely to not work in serious conditions.
Improve Your Eyesight
Image SourceThere is no research to suggest that eye yoga or any eye exercise can increase nearsightedness, called myopia. According to a 2012 study
of eye yoga method for people with refraction errors and astigmatism showed some to no objective improvement. The authors of this study thought that research is needed to determine eye yoga completely as a reciprocal treatment for eyesight.
For glaucoma
Image SourceSome require that eye yoga may help to get down the IOP(intraocular pressure) in your eye. If so, this may slow down the glaucoma progression, which is a condition that turns the optic nerve. A 2018 proposition in the International-Journal-of-Yoga shown proof to make the case that eye yoga could help to take down the IOP. So far, no clinical tests have been performed to confirm this hypothesis.
For Dry Eyes
Image SourceDry eyes are not completely dry. If there has been surgery or chronic damage that makes it damaged, then you will have to use something like teardrops that are found in the pharmacy. But this is not the problem and eyes have not had serious damage, there are other ways to perform it.
There are kriyas in yoga from which you can stimulate tear glands, but the best thing that you could perform is to use an ash gourd. It is a vegetable that is commonly referred to as winter melon in the United State. It is a greenish-grey vegetable, which has a color of dusty ash. If you wipe it, it comes off over your hands, which is the reason it is called ash gourd. Extract the juice of it and heap it over the eyes and lie down for 10-minutes. Then remove with cold water. This will help dry eyes.
But you should take eye specialist help for chronic dry eyes.Â
After Cataract Surgery
Image SourceSome people claim that performing eye yoga after surgery of cataract can benefit to restore ocular strength. It is not a suitable idea to try this instantly after getting removed cataract.
Your eye requires time to heal and manage the artificial lens inserted during cataract surgery. Talk to your ophthalmologist before you try any type of workout after cataract surgery.Â
Benefit Dark Circles Under Eyes
Image SourceStress, lack of sleep, spending more time in front of a computer screen or TV, dehydration, or ill health can be the reason behind the dark circle. Dark circles are also occurred by less blood flow to the face or less oxygen. Many yoga experts thought that promoting blood flow to the face help to remove dark circles.
Eye yoga may not increase blood flow under the eyes in any particular way and will not remove dark circles under the eyes unless you having enough sleep and a stress-free lifestyle.
For Eye Strain
Image SourceEye yoga may help to prevent and correct eye strain symptoms. According to a study of 60 nursing students, 8-weeks of eye yoga practice was shown to make eyes feel less tired and limit fatigued.
Eye strain is linked with stress, so doing eye yoga may work in two ways by stimulating the muscles that move the eye and strengthen them. It reduces stress levels and helps students to remain focused.
What The Science Says
Image SourceThere is more science to promote the eye yoga practice than you might expect, though more research is required to back up various claims.
Eye yoga involves focusing on an object near or far. It also involves moving eyes from the right, left, and upward and downward. These focusing movements and muscle training serve two purposes.
First, tending to small, useful movements from any type of yogic practice relieve and calm down the body. Getting peace to the body from healthy stress mechanisms to prevent hypertension, which is linked with headache, glaucoma, and anxiety, which can cause to strain eyes.
Second, practicing focus will help to improve the response of the brain to whatever you see, even if your eyes manage to send refraction errors, which make images difficult to understand. You might not be noticing better, but you might become extra attentive to what you see.
That could be a reason in one study, no improvement was shown in eyes regarding objectively measured but participants felt like they were noticing it more clearly.
A 2013 study of 60 participants noticed that a simple eye workout helped to improve response time to what the study group was noticing.Â
Eye Exercises That Work
Image SourceEye exercises involve eye yoga, which may work to benefit from eye strain and decrease stress. Feeling more limited stress can help to concentrate better, while you may not fix or heal the eye problem. You may wish to attempt this yoga while working additional time before a PC or any eye-stressing action. If you wear glasses or contact focal points, you will wish to eliminate them before attempting eye yoga.
Yoga for Eye Health
The eyes are the most delicate and used part of the human body. Many tissues of the brain linked with vision. So much of the information, the brain gathers about the world is from the eyes. That means eyes are critical to how we see and understand our surroundings, make decisions, and develop a perspective. Our eyes are under more pressure.
For this reason and others, yogis have found the positive results of performing yoga for eye health. Practicing yoga can help to improve the coordination of eye muscles and promote vision. Here is yoga for the eyes.Â
Yoga for Eye Health
Blinking
Image SourceBegin with a comfortable seated or standing position. Let your body muscles relax and engaged. Start with a gentle gaze in the front direction. Let your eyes focus on some object a few meters away for 30-seconds. Then, open your eyes as much as wide possible and blink 10 different times. You will sense relief and stretch in your muscle of the lid.
Close eyes for 30 seconds and repeat the same four times as routine.
This yoga for the eyeâs benefits increasing blood flow in the eyes. It also stretches and lubricant eyes muscles. Make sure to breathe all time as you complete this Asana.
Nose Gazing
Image SourceMany people use the computer for work purposes or spend more time seeing at cell phone screens. Both of those activities are using close-up or near vision. The eye muscles contract for to be able to see objects up close, they can easily get strained and tired. To relieve this tension, it is important to perform looking at objects at various distances away.
Try including nose gazing in a yoga performance. Begin with keeping a thumb on the tip of the nose. Stare at them with both eyes a couple of times. Then, slowly stretch out your arm pulling your thumb away from your nose. Follow them with eyes. When your arm is completely stretched out, look into the distance and rest your eyes there for 20-seconds. Move arm slowly from one side to another, following them with eyes. Make sure to keep your neck still so that your eyes must use their muscles to move.
Shoulder Stand
Image SourceThe shoulder stand is unique yoga for elevating blood flow to the brain and optic nerve. Begin by lying flat over the back on a yoga mat. Using your palms to face down on either side of the body, raise your legs straight over the hips. Force into the mat doing your hand and lift your hips as well. Then, use hands to balance buttocks and hips.
Wrap neck and jawline up to forestall strain. Hold this posture for in any event one moment, permit blood to stream down to the head. When delivered, tenderly lower down your legs and back so they don’t hammer over the floor.
Anuloma
When we are busy or stressed, sometimes we forget to breathe deeply. We get so consumed by life that we do not even notice when our organs and muscles are lacking oxygen. This asana is good for improving breathing, relaxation of muscles, and blood circulation. Begin by sitting at a comfortable point and closing your eyes. Keep the thumb of the right hand over the right nostril. As you inhale, the air can only to in the left nostril. Before breathing out, remove them and close the left nostril by keeping the right pinky finger on it. This complete breathing out movement should take 10-seconds. Four seconds to breath-in, two seconds to hold the air, then 4-seconds to breathe out. Repeat yoga for 30-seconds.
Bhramari Pranayama
Image SourceThis asana is good for setting your mind, relaxing your body, and relieving eyes. In a comfortable seated position, shut eyes. Keep the index fingers near eyelids horizontally. Now as you breathe in make a buzzing sound. Some call this bee breathing because of the sound you get. When you buzz, keep slight pressure over your eyes. Then release the pressure when exhale. Repeat this yoga for one minute.
Kapalbhati Pranayama
Image SourceIt is a breathing practice in yoga, which helps to clean the lungs and boost circulation.
Sit conveniently opposite the wall.
Let your hands over your legs and gently shut your eyes. After deep breathing out, start inhaling in sharp, staccato breaths.
Try to adjust over the abdomen and see the immediate starts as you breath-in. When your lungs get full, take the air for few seconds, then begin breathing out like how you breathed. Short, jolting breaths. Repeat this breathing yoga for 30-seconds.
Shavasana
Image SourceShavasana is the best way to end eye yoga. The different stretches and asanas you have performed help to give good work. You may feel some soreness or tenderness. It is important to close your eyes with relaxation moments. Shavasana consists of lying flat over your back and close your eyes. Try to focus on your breathing and take a slow breath. Meditate on each of your body parts head to toe. When you do practice for the eye, try to assess how they feel.
These are some ways of yoga to keep eyes healthy. As with anybody’s muscle, the workout is important. This simple yoga helps to give break to the eyes from a busy routine, relieve strain, and reduce eye stress. Adding eye exercises to the daily regimen helps to strengthen eye muscles. Yoga and a healthy diet work effectively for healthy vision and sharp eyesight.
Tips For Eye Health
Image SourceBeyond trying out eye yoga, there are different research to tell how to keep your eyes healthy.
Have regular eye check-ups. It is essential for the early detection of conditions like glaucoma and cataracts. It also gives you time to talk with your doctor about good eye health. After 60 age, you should keep checking with your doctor for healthy vision.
Save your eyes from UV rays by wearing sunglasses.
If you continuously work on the computer, then reduce your screen brightness, and take 5 minutes breaks every hour.
Drink more water to help your eyes hydrate.
Eat more leafy green vegetables like kale, spinach, carrot, and oranges.
Avoid smoking or vape.
Yoga Is Not for Everyone
Image SourceWhile yoga has different health benefits, some yoga asanas could cause issues for people who suffer from glaucoma. Several inverted positions have been shown to raise the pressure in the eyes.
In observational research involving 10 people with internal eye pressure, glaucoma raises within one minute of finding each pose. It returned to regular after 2-minutes of sitting. Extended inner eye pressure can cause nerve damage.
Inverted yoga poses that can cause damage including:
downward dog
the standard forward bend pose
Plow pose
asana that needs headstands or keeping legs on the wall
Ask your yoga expert about modified poses that can benefit to skip inversions.
Eyes Yoga: An Eye-Cleansing Trataka Exercise
Image SourcePerhaps you have seen a picture of a yogi gazing at a candle flame. If so, you have seen Trataka, an exercise for cleansing eyes talks about the Upanishads and discussed in other yogic texts, including the Hatha yoga Pradipika. Trataka can also be discovered in the texts of Ayurveda, where it is suggested to stimulate the Alochaka Pitta, the energy center linked to sight.
Although typically performed with a candle, Trataka can use almost any external object of focus, like a dot on the wall. Focus on gaze over one object, without blinking, until your eyes start to tear. Then shut eyes and try to manage a clear image of that thing for as long as possible. Every time you perform Trataka, stretch the time you manage the after-image.
Side Effects Of More Screen-Time
Myopia (Nearsightedness)
Image SourceMany people develop nearsightedness has increased more in United Stated since 1971. According to a 2019 study reveals that some of this increased when screen time, books, and longer time spent indoors. The research also discovered that spending time outside, particularly in early childhood, can slow down the advancement of nearsightedness.
Digital Eye Strain
Image SourceThis is a catch-all name for the signs we feel when we spend more time been looking at a screen too long. These might include itchy eyes, dry eyes, headaches, and blurry vision. While these are all temporary and have not been connected to permanent damage, more screen time can affect overall life quality and physical comfort.
Sleep Disruption
Image SourceWhile the theorized correlation in blue light more exposure and macular degeneration has not been shown with research, screen use closer to bedtime has been shown to harm sleep quality and affect circadian rhythm. The National-Sleep-Foundation says children who spend more time in front of a screen tend to sleep later, take more time to fall asleep, and sleepless hours than those with low exposure to these devices.
Warnings
Always follow a normal eye care routine, whether that involves wearing or using medication your prescription contacts, and glasses.
If you feel vision change, pain, lightheadedness, or other symptoms, then stop the exercise immediately. If you continue to feel these symptoms, consult your doctors.
Note that while doing yoga can help to delay the need for contact or glasses in some people, this can also be performed by taking visual breaks from work to prevent strains.
Doing eye exercises helps to reduce the most common issues that necessitate restorative lenses, such as nearsightedness, astigmatism, farsightedness, and presbyopia age-linked lens stiffening. Eye workouts also do nothing to cure glaucoma and macular degeneration. Presently research suggests that non-medical eye workout regimens will not keep away the glasses if you need them, nor will they change the course of your specific eye disease or condition.
More research is needed to consider various claims that people make about eye yoga. There is reason to believe that eye yoga and another eye workout might benefit from eye strain by lowering stress and enhancing focus but still, there is a need to have more science to consider this.
Doing eye yoga from an early age can help to prevent further eye ailments in older age affected by diabetes and high blood pressure. Make sure to take your doctor’s advice for severe eye problems.
Sources