Spiritual Cookie » eye exercises

Edge Tracking Eye Exercise

SpiritualCookie — Sun, 04 Oct 2015 10:42:07 +0000

This ciliary eye muscle strengthening, eye focusing exercise is called “Blur Zoning”, “Edging exercise”, “Tracking”, “Edge Tracking” or “Edge Tracing”.

How to do this Edging Exercise:

1.) Choose an object that has a clearly defined edge (like the edge of a window, edge of a door, a dark tree branch or tree trunk against the sky, the edge of a building, a telephone pole etc). Without glasses (or with undercorrected glasses that you’re learning to focus with), make sure the object is far enough away from you to be slighty blurry but not extremely blurry. (In “Print Pushing” exercise terminology, we’re talking about being somewhere between D1 and D2). Be a distance where you can see the object’s lightly blurred edge.

2.) Ensuring your body is relaxed and your mind is calm, allow your eyes to slowly move along the edge of the object, edge-tracking its slightly blurry edges. The idea is to carefully study the slightly blurred object’s edges, whilst staying relaxed (and not squinting, straining or efforting too much). And the idea is that by training your eyes to do this, eventually edges at this distance will come into better focus.

It is recommended in the book, “Improve your Vision Without Glasses” to do this exercise for about 2 minute at a time.

3.) You can finish the exercise with doing a little palming or just closing your eyes for a bit, to help your eyes relax from the effort of the exercise.

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What this Edge Tracking exercise does:

It strikes me that this exercise sounds a lot like Push Printing, the only difference being that in Push Printing we’re focusing on text on the computer or in a book, and in this exercise you’re focusing on an object.

Both Push Printing and this eye exercise aim to sharpen the visual acuity (ie. the sharpness of the focussed image) by training you to focus within your current blur zone, with the aim of eventually clearing up focus in this zone.

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How this Edge Tracking Eye Focusing exercise works:

This exercise trains and strengthens your ciliary muscles in your eye.

By trying to focus on things that are a little blurry, you are training your ciliary muscle to learn to focus better and clear up images at this distance that had been little blurry. In more techniqcal jargon, in the book “Improve your Vision” they say that this method exercises the ciliary muscle so that “they will increase their accomodative amplitude, extend the nearpoint and farpoint, and change the refractive status of the lens.”

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Disclaimer: Everything in this article is material the author has learned from books and online articles and is not a substitute for help from a qualified eyecare professional. Any exercises or recommendations described are applied at the risk and sole responsibility of the reader. The author takes no responsibility for any consequences arising from a reader practising anything recommended on this website.

Clock Rotations eye muscle stretching exercise

SpiritualCookie — Sun, 04 Oct 2015 10:00:25 +0000

How to do the Clock Rotation eye exercise

1.) Choose an object that’s in front of you at a distance where you’re able to keep it in good focus. You can do this without glasses, or with undercorrected glasses. Imagine this object is the center-point in the middle of a clock.

2.) Without moving your head, move your eyes towards where the 9 O’clock position would be, giving your eye muscles a stretch to the left, and keep your eyes there for a couple of seconds to allow the extraocular muscles to have a good stretch. Then return to the object-center-point.

3.) Do the same exercise with position 10 O’clock, then 11, 12 etc going all the way around the imaginary clock.

Going all the way around the clock should take about 30 seconds or so.
In the book “Improve your Vision” they suggest doing this exercise for 1-2 minutes at a time, so maybe go around the clock twice for one eye exercise session.

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What does this eye technique do?

The Clock Rotation eye technique has a similar purpose to the Eye Rolling Exercise.

Relaxes and “unwinds” the eye after it’s been in one position for a long time (say when reading or staring at a screen). The unwinding may help promote energy flow and circulation of oxygen and nutrients to the eye.
Trains, stretches and strengthens the extraocular eye muscles. I think this may be helpful also for improving peripheral vision and overcoming problems of tunnel-vision.

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Eye Roll exercise for strengthening eye muscles

SpiritualCookie — Fri, 02 Oct 2015 19:36:40 +0000

How do you do the Eye Rolling Exercise?

Keeping your head still and moving only your eyes, look all the way to the left and then move your eyes slowly and smoothly in a clockwise fashion all around in a circular motion, keeping the eye looking to the sides, around, up and down to give your muscles a good stretch.

After doing it clockwise for 30 seconds to 1 minute, you can do it anti-clockwise for another 30 seconds to 1 minute.

In the book “Improve your Vision Without Glasses”, they suggest doing this exercise for about 1-2 minutes at a time.

Word of Caution:
Don’t overdo the eye-muscle stretch. A sign of overdoing it and causing stress to the eye is if you see flashes of light or if you feel any discomfort or pain.
If you’re prone to motion sickness or feel yourself getting dizzy from this exercise one possible way to try this exercise is underneath the cover of your hands, or underneath the cover of a dark cloth so that you don’t have to look around.

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What does this eye exercise do?

Relaxes and “unwinds” the eye after it’s been in one position for a long time (say when reading or staring at a screen). The unwinding may help promote energy flow and circulation of oxygen and nutrients to the eye.
Trains, stretches and strengthens the extraocular eye muscles. I think this may be helpful also for improving peripheral vision and overcoming problems of tunnel-vision.

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Push Printing eye focus exercise

SpiritualCookie — Fri, 02 Oct 2015 19:05:43 +0000

The “Push Printing” eye exercise, also known as “Print Pushing”, “Push Print”, “Focus Pushing” or “Active Focus training” is a myopia vision therapy technique I learned about from reading Todd Becker’s blog, gettingstronger.org. The thing I like about this eyesight improvement exercise is that it’s very easy to integrate it into your daily life (unlike many of the other exercises which require you to spend time outside of your routine, doing the exercises). So what is this technique?

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What is Push Printing?

Push Printing is a technique which you can apply every time you are reading print, be it on the computer or in a book. The idea is to push your eyes to read withing your readable-blur-zone, to train them to adapt and to push them into actively focusing to clear up your current blur zone.

Todd Becker likens this technique to weight-lifting for the eyes. At first the weights (=the increased distance demand you put on your eyes to read) feel a little uncomfortable to lift, but after some training, your muscles adapt and strengthen so that those weights feel easy to lift and you can move to heavier ones (or in eye terms, you can increase your distance from the screen even more as your eyes adapt to the previous distance and are ready for an increased blur distance to train with).

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How to do Print Pushing

Let’s look at the step-by-step method for this technique:

Depending on your starting-point eyesight, you can use this method either without glasses or with progressively lower prescriptions as you buy undercorrected glasses and train your eyes step by step, glasses by glasses (over the course of several weeks or months) to go down in prescription.

Step 1: Find D1
Find your “comfortable focus” distance (called D1) from the screen or book. You do this by seeing how far you need to be from the screen in order for the text to JUST be crisp and focused. Becker calls this the “edge of focus”.
Step 2: Find D2
Find where your “blur zone distance” (called D2) starts. This is the point where the text is still readable but a little less crisp and slightly more blurry. Becker calls this point the “edge of blur”.
Step 3: Find D3
Find the “unreadable distance” (called D3), which is the point at which the text is so blurry that you can no longer read it.
Step 4: Do any near-work somewhere between D1 and D2:
By reading on the computer or from a book at the distance where the text is readable but just a tad blurry, you are adding a small amount of stress which encourages the eye to actively learn to re-focus blurred text and adjust so that it can see crisply within this distance. The idea is that after training your eye for a while at this distance, the eye will eventually learn to focus at this distance, at which point your eyesight will have improved.
Note: It’s very important not to push yourself too much. Stay in D1-D2 and don’t go beyond D2 because otherwise you just strain your eyes instead of training them. It’s like in the gym when you workout too hard and then your muscles need the right amount of weight-training, whereas too much heavy weight at once is too much for your muscles, is not good for your body and won’t see positive results. The right weights, working out the right way will get positive results.
Since Push Printing can be a little strenuous for the eye, you may want to do it just for 2-4 hours a day, taking breaks every 15-30 minutes to let your eyes rest.
Step 5: Keep note of your D1, D2 and D3 measurements to see improvement
Over the weeks and months that you train your eyes, once a week or so, make a note of the D1, D2 and D3 distances that you are currently reading at. If you are challenging yourself and using the Push Printing technique effectively (alongside good eye habits of taking regular breaks, having good amounts of lighting, avoiding eye strain, eating healthily and covering all the other bases for good eye health), you should be seeing that the distance at which the text becomes blurry will gradually start to increase so that you can see more clearly now at your old blur zone.
Step 6: When you reach a D1-D2 of 20 inches, graduate to plus lenses
Becker suggests that in order to keep training your eyes, once you can see the screen without glasses at a distance of 20 inches away, use plus lenses to continue training them towards optimal eyesight without glasses.

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Other similar eyes exercises

There are a lot of similarities between Push Printing and the following exercises I’ve seen:

Edge Tracking (aka Blur Zoning)
The Acuity Chart Exercise in the book “Improve your Vision without glasses” which uses a specific chart to practice push printing on rather than just working with everyday text that’s around you.

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References:
- Todd Becker. 2010. Improve eyesight – and throw away your glasses. gettingstronger.org
- Todd Becker. 2014. Myopia: A Modern Yet Reversible Disease. Ancestry Foundations. youtube video
- Alex Frauenfeld. 2013. How to: Finding Active Focus. endmyopia.org
- Alex Frauenfeld. Is Print Pushing the Best Way to Improve Eyesight? endmyopia.org

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Eye focusing exercises: Pumping between near & far focus

SpiritualCookie — Fri, 02 Oct 2015 12:24:19 +0000

In the book “Improve your Vision Without Glasses or Contact Lenses”, they recommend a technique called eye “Pumping” which is essentially a deliberate near-to-far focusing exercise.

I’ve read variations of this technique that are recommended by several eyesight-improving experts including Todd Becker on his site, gettingstronger.org and Alex Frauenfeld from the Frauenfeld Clinic and the website, endmyopia.org. Instead of calling it “pumping”, Alex calls this distant-focus-near-focus method “focus pulling” & “focus pushing” (or sometimes he calls it “pulling focus” & “pushing focus”), and I’ve seen others call it the “alternate focusing technique”, the “shifting focus technique” and the “re-focus exercise”.

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How to do the Pumping eye focusing exercise:

1.) Near focus:
Pick an object that’s near you at a distance of about 6 inches, or 15 cm away from you). It can be an object on your desk; it can be your hand, a piece of jewelry you have on – anything you have handy. Focus on this for 2 seconds, examining it in detail.

2.) Distant focus
Pick something that’s far away from you, at a distance that’s slightly blurry but that you can still kind of see. Examples of objects you can choose for distant focus may be an object or book on the shelf at the other end of the room, a tree branch outside the window, a road sign, the edge of a building or the numberplate of a car. Focus on this for 2 seconds, examining it in as much detail as you can.

3.) Alternate Near and Distant Focus
Every 2 seconds, change your eyes focus from near to distant object, essentially “pumping” near-far-near-far, between the objects.

The book recommends to do this eye exercise for about 3 minutes at a time, and you can do it several times a day to really give your eyes’ ciliary muscles a good workout.

Other experts don’t specify that you need to alternate 2-second focus intervals and don’t specify the exact time periods to dedicate to close-up vs distant focus. There is room to experiment with “pumping” at your own speed.

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Supplementary notes for this exercise:

The book didn’t specify whether to do this exercise with or without glasses, or what to do if you can’t see very far without glasses. Here’s my personal extrapolation for possible ways to do this exercise regarding whether you do it with or without glasses:

(i.) without glasses: Depending on your eyesight, the “distant” object that’s on the edge of your blur-zone may be still quite near to you (say 30cm or less away). That’s ok – Personalize this exercise to practice with your blur zone and hopefully over time your blur-zone distance will increase.

(ii.) with undercorrected glasses: Particularly for people starting the eye-healing process with stronger prescriptions, part of your vision therapy method probably involves using undercorrected glasses to gradually improve your eyes. You can use this Pumping exercise with undercorrected glasses to allow you to practice focusing on more distant objects whilst still challenging and training your eye a little through the slightly undercorrected lenses.

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How does this eye focusing exercise work?

The idea is that by alternating near and distant focus, it is like sending the ciliary muscles in your eyes to the gym to get stronger. (NB the ciliary muscles are the muscles in charge of eye focus.)

In eyesight jargon, the “Improve your Vision” book states that exercising the ciliary muscles in this way will “increase the accomodative amplitude, extend the nearpoint and farpoint, and change the refractive status of the lens”.

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Squeezing eyes shut: Closed Eyes vision improving exercise

SpiritualCookie — Fri, 02 Oct 2015 11:31:49 +0000

There is one exercise called “Squeeze Blinking” in the book “Improve your Vision Without Glasses or Contact Lenses”, that is recommended as a good eye exercise for re-moistening and recharging, dry, strained eyes. In other sources it’s sometimes called the “Eye Squeeze” or the “Eye Clench exercise”.

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How to do Squeeze Blinking

1.) Get into a relaxed body posture, shaking loose your shoulders and making sure your neck feels relaxed.

2.) Close your eyes, shutting your eyelids tightly shut. Squeeze your eyes closed as tightly as you can without scrunching up your face. The idea is to strengthen the eyelid muscles so JUST use these isolated muscles to close your eyes tight.

3.) Open the eyes

Repeat the Squeeze-eyes-blink a couple of times until you feel it has stimulated the production of your tear fluid and your eyes feel less dry and better moistened. Usually this only takes about a minute or so – maybe even less.

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Dry eyes can exacerbate poor vision so by making sure your eyes are well moistened you are giving yourself the best chance at good vision.

It’s a good idea to check in with whether your eyes are feeling well-moistened about once every 30 minutes and do a quick squeeze-blink, fast blinking or slow blink exercise to remoisten them if they are feeling dry.

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Slow Blink Eye Exercise

SpiritualCookie — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 15:18:09 +0000

How do you do the Slow Blink eye exercise?

Before starting, relax your shoulders and neck muscles to get into a relaxed state. Ok, now you’re ready to begin:

1.) Inhale deeply from the stomach and blink normally on the in-breath.

2.) On the slow exhalation, gently close your eyes and keep them relaxed and closed for the duration of the out-breath.

Do this breath-based slow blink exercise for about 1 minute at a time. Considering a deep-breathing inhale/exhale cycle takes about 8-10 seconds, that’s about 6-8 repeats.

Side note: Some people who teach eye exercises for recovering from myopia, like Brian Severson, do a variation of this method for when you are trying to clear up a blur (as opposed to just aiming for eye relaxation). If you’re reading a text and it looks a little blurry, you can use this slow-blink technique and then when you re-open your eyes, open them wide on purpose. You might notice that as you widen your eyes, the blur clears up a little.

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What does this slow blinking exercise do?

It does a few things:

Relaxes eyes from strain as the chance to close them for a little while gives them a little break.
Re-moistens the eyes and stimulates the production of tear fluid to help protect against dry eyes
Oxygenates your body and the eyes as you combine the exercise with deep-breathing.
Destresses: It helps your body relax in general and helps manage stress. Unmanaged stress can be another contributor to poor vision.

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How often should you do this exercise?

It’s up to you how often you’d like to use this technique but it’s probably good to use it when your eyes feel like they need a break, or if they feel a little dry.

For eye exercises in general some experts recommend refreshing your eyes in some way for a couple of minutes, once every 30 to 40 minutes of intense close-up work like computer work, reading or writing. You can relax your eyes with this slow blink method or alternate it with other eye relaxation exercises like palming, sunning or eye acupressure.

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Fast Blinking Eye Exercise

SpiritualCookie — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 12:19:23 +0000

How to do the Fast Blinking Eye Exercise:

1.) Inhale and blink normally on this in-breath.

2.) On exhalation, blink as quickly as you can for the duration of the out-breath.

Do this breath-based rapid blinking exercise for about 1 minute at a time. Considering a deep-breathing inhale/exhale cycle takes about 8-10 seconds, that’s about 6-8 repeats.

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What does this fast blink eye exercise do?

The fast blinking exercise treats dry eyes, which are a common side effect of staring at tv or computer screens, or when not blinking a lot when you’re concentrating on near-work, be it reading or something else. Dry eye is also prevalent places where the air is dry and in cities where the air is affected by pollution.

Dry eyes can be felt when the eyes feel uncomfortable, red and irritated.

This fast blinking exercise helps treat dry eyes because every time you blink, it coats the eye with the eye’s tear fluids, to moisten the eyes. A well-moistened eye is a healthy eye that has the best chances for optimal vision.

Note that there is more than one way to help treat dry eyes and this is just one of many possible ways.

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How often should I do the fast blinking exercise?

It depends if you’re using this technique alone or if you’re using other eye exercises too.

For eye exercises in general it is recommended that you refresh your eyes in some way (be it resting them with something like palming, or refreshing them with an exercise like a slow-blink or a fast-blink) for a couple of minutes, once every 30 to 40 minutes of near vision work.

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Acupressure points for eyes

SpiritualCookie — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 11:44:15 +0000

Acupressure is another tool that can be used to help maintain good eye health. It’s basically the art of using your fingers to press certain “pressure points” on the body, which trigger the normalization of energy flow in your body.

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How does eye acupressure work?

Acupressure works by the same principles that acupuncture works. Based on Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), our body has energy channels called Meridians through which energy flows. If there is a blockage, obstruction or slowing-down of the energy flow for some reason it is believed to lead to problems, and this energy flow can affect any body organ, including the eyes.

You can sometimes feel “obstructed energy”. My acupuncturist told me that you can feel it by feeling certain areas of your skin feel more swollen, full, tight, sensitive and tender than others. If you gently feel around your neck, back-of-shoulders and head (e.g. behind the ears, or on the temples), you may notice a few tender spots which may indicate that the energy is not flowing in a 100% balanced and smooth way.

The theory is that each acupuncture point (or acupressure point) is an access point to influence the energy flow. By pressing certain points, we can help normalize the energy flow, clearing up energy blockages.

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What are the acupressure points for the eyes?

There are a lot of acupressure points for the eyes:

A.) Acupressure points for the eyes on the face and head:

Under the eyebrows, on either side of the bridge of the nose. Link to picture showing the points
On either side of the bridge of the nose, near the corner of the eye. Link to photo showing the location
I believe this is acupuncture point is BL1 or UB1 which stands for Urinary Bladder 1, also known as Jingming. This point is known to be helpful with blurred vision and vision loss, as well as being helpful with early-stage cataracts, glaucoma and conjunctivitis
Eye socket pressure points:
- Along the upper eye socket, along the eyebrow
Here are the acupuncture points known as BL2 (aka UB2), YUYAO and TB23 (aka SJ23).
Link to image showing points locations
Each point does something a little different.
BL2 is very similar to BL1 with similar benefits.
YUYAO is good for eye problems that relate to studying too much, mental strain and worry.
TB23 is generally helpful for eye issues and general energy flow in the face area.
- Along the lower eye socket
Link to image showing points locations
Here the acupuncture points are known as ST1, QIUHOU and GB1. All of these are good for treating eye problems including short-sightedness.
NB. Below I will describe an acupressure exercise that simultaneously stimulates all these eye-socket points at once.
Third eye point: This is between your eyebrows as shown in this picture. This point’s Chinese name is “Yintang” and it is said to be good for helping eyestrain as well as other issues that may arise from energy blockages in the area (eg headaches, anxiety, sinus congestion, insomnia). To activate this point, you’d simply massage it in circular motions or use the press-release-repeat method.
Nostril points: These points are located on either side of the nostrils, as shown in this photo. These points help energy flow that relates to clarity of vision.

B.) Hand Acupressure points for the eyes

The tips of the thumbs on the hands contain the pressure points that are linked to the eyes and also to the neck muscles, which are often closely related to the eye-muscle energy flow.
On a Hand Reflexology chart like this one, the area I’m talking about is labeled “Brain / Head” rather than eyes. In other charts it is given a more specific label of certain areas in the head or brain like “Pituitary gland”.
Massaging these can help strengthen eyesight.

The eye area is also found at the base of the index and middle fingers as shown in this hand reflexology chart.

C.) Feet Acupressure points for the eyes

If you look at a Reflexology Foot Chart, you can see that the eye zone is on the first and second toes, besides the big toe. Massaging the toes all the way to the tips may be helpful for eye health.

The right foot treats your left eye, and the left foot treats your right eye so it’s best to massage both feet.

D.) Other points that affect the eyes

The neck muscles are closely linked to the eye muscles. In order for blood flow carrying nutrients and oxygen, and in order for meridian-energy flow to reach your eyes, it has to pass via the neck. So it makes sense to me that if your neck-muscles are tight and tense, it may inhibit flow. If the neck muscles are relaxed and feeling good, your eye muscles would be better off too. For this reason, I think that a neck massage or anything that can relieve tension from the neck and shoulders, would be helpful for the eyes.

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How to do Eye Acupressure Exercises

With all acupressure exercises, you basically find the points and apply gentle pressure to them (without ever putting pressure on the eyeball). The two main techniques for acupressure are:

a.) Applying gentle pressure for a few seconds and release, and repeat. I call this the press-release-repeat method.
b.) Massage the points with small circular movements. You can do this either with your fingertips or with a finger knuckle which sometimes works better.
c.) Tapping the pressure points can increase their stimulation

You can work with any of the eye pressure points mentioned above.

If you prefer step-by-step guidance, below are 3 recommended acupressure exercises that are often recommended for improving eye health:
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1.) Inner Eyebrow Massage

This acupressure massage stimulates the under-eyebrow points (pictured in this link).

First get into a relaxed state, releasing the tension that might be in your neck or shoulders. Then use your thumbs to find the points on either side of your eyes. It should feel a little nervy when you apply light pressure to them. Close your eyes and move your thumbs in a gentle circular motion whilst applying the gentle pressure.

2.) Around-Eye Massage

This acupressure exercise hits all the pressure points along both the upper and lower eye socket ridge (the points shown here).

Before starting, you may want to make sure you hands and face are well moisturized with something like vitamin E cream to ensure the fingers glide easily over the area.

Get into a relaxed state, relaxing your muscles.
Put your thumb on your temples.
Upper rim massage: Using your knuckles on your index finger, glide the knuckle along your eyebrow, going from nose-to-temple.
Lower rim massage: Now glide your knuckles along the lower eye rim going from nose-to-temple.
Alternate upper rim and lower rim massage for a couple of minutes.

3.) Nose-bridge massage

This exercise involves firstly relaxing your body and eyes (you can close them if it helps you feel relaxed), and then simply pressing-and-releasing the nose-bridge points as shown here in this picture.

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How long should you do an acupressure exercise for?

In the book “Improve your Vision Without Glasses or Contact Lenses” they suggest doing each acupressure exercise for anything from 5-10 seconds each if you’re doing a lot of different points, or 2 minutes each if you’re just focusing on one point. Another article I found online suggested doing the exercise on a point for 3-5 minutes a day.

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How long before you see results?

It depends on the individual, but it is recommended to use acupressure regularly, once a day, every day, and assess if you can feel a difference after giving it a good amount of time. Check in with yourself to see how you feel at 1 week, 2 week and 3 week check-points.

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Eye Contrast Hydrotherapy: Hot and Cold Compress for eye muscles treatment

SpiritualCookie — Tue, 29 Sep 2015 11:52:58 +0000

If you’ve ever heard of Contrast Hydrotherapy, or of the art of Hot Cold Therapy, you’ve probably heard of it in the context of healing sports and muscle injuries. Hot and cold packs or compresses are commonly used by athletes like soccer / football players, tennis stars and runners, to aid in muscle recovery, especially where repetitive muscle strain is involved.

But it’s not just the muscles in sportsmen’s limbs that are used repetitively and are prone to straining. One of the muscles in the body we use a lot are the eye muscles, and in many of us, the eye muscles are strained, even if we don’t feel it so obviously. So if hot and cold compress therapy helps muscle strain for large muscles in the body, why not also use them for the small eye muscles?

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How to do Hydrotherapy for the Eyes

This is the method recommended in the book “Improve your Vision without glasses”. They suggest the following:

Set-up: Make up two bowls of water, putting a washcloth in each one. Fill one bowl with hot water (hot but not so hot that it is uncomfortable and scalding), and fill the other bowl with ice cold water. Instead of the cold water bowl, you can just use an ice pack.
Hot application: Apply the hot washcloth to your closed eyes for 30 seconds.
Cold application: Apply the cold washcloth or icepack to your closed eyes. The book says to do it for 30 seconds, but most conventional contrast hydrotherapy I’ve read puts the cold compress on for shorter durations than the warm compress, so that’s something to bear in mind. I was thinking that maybe 10 seconds cold could be enough but that’s just my guess from observing the conventional 3:1 time ratio of warm to cold treatments in conventional hydrotherapy. Some people say the time durations don’t matter so much as long as you generally experience the “good and hot” vs “good and cold” alternating feelings.
Repeat: Repeat the hot and cold applications. The book unfortunately doesn’t specify how many times to repeat the applications but it suggests doing it for about 3 to 5 minutes is a good amount of treatment time. Most conventional hydrotherapy does 3 to 6 rounds, although most conventional hydrotherapy for big muscles also puts the compress on for 3 minutes rather than 30 seconds at a time, so I’m not sure exactly if it translates directly. I guess play it by ear and see how you feel after 3 to 6 repetitions to see if it feels like enough or if you’d like to do more.
Ending the treatment: Conventional contrast hydrotherapy tends to end with a cold compress if you’re treating inflammation, and it tends to end with a warm compress if there is no inflammation and you’re aiming for achieving relaxation. My guess is that in the case of the eyes, if your eyes feel strained, hot, red and tired, then finishing with a cold compress may be best, whereas if your eyes feel fine and not strained, then finishing with a warm compress may be a nice way to round off the hydrotherapy treatment.

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Alternative suggestion:
If you don’t like the idea of putting hot and cold compresses directly on your eyes, an alternative suggestion I thought of is perhaps applying hot and cold packs to the reflexology points on the feet that correspond to the eyes.

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How often should you do Hydrotherapy for the eyes?

The book “Improve your Vision” suggests doing Hydrotherapy once a day for 3 to 5 minutes at a time.

With athletic hydrotherapy for large muscles, they say it’s sufficient to do it once a day. Don’t overdo it though because the effectivity of this method is likely to only have minor beneficial effects and this method works best when used as part of a bigger-eye-therapy-plan, used in combination with other eye exercises that treat the bigger picture of eye health.

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Theory behind Hydrotherapy for the Eyes

What’s the logic behind applying hot and cold packs to the eyes? The theory for how it works is this:

Encourages blood flow to the eyes:
Hot applications expand the blood vessels, and the cold application constricts them. This creates a toothpaste-tube-like action, promoting the pushing of the blood along through the area you’re treating with hot/cold compresses. As the blood flow to the eyes is encouraged, it brings with it nourishing oxygen and nurtients, and carries away the waste-products that may have been stagnating there. The result is a fresher-feeling, better nourished eye area, which may help the eyes function better.
Hot and cold treatment gives tissues a gentle workout:
By the same principle that cold causes contraction and heat causes expansion, the hot-cold-therapy gives all the tissues in the area a gentle workout. Just as workouts strngthen the body, this kind of micro- workout may help strengthen the area.

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