People with glasses... What do you ACTUALLY see?

[SummerLite]

Has anyone tried pinhole glasses to strengthen the muscles of the eyes? Speaking for myself they do work.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinhole_glasses

I wear reading glasses and have become very dependent upon them.. This is the typical loss of focus that comes with age. I've considered trying the pinhole glasses just haven't gotten around to them yet, and its good to hear they worked for you 1peacelover. The explanation given there is the muscles in eyes become lazy over time and loose their ability to focus on objects that are close. This is due to the preponderance of looking at things in close range and basically is a condition of living in our modern world with so much focus on things close at hand. These glasses are said to exercise the eye muscles, focusing mechanism. I read all this awhile back so may be missing important details there. The reading glasses, (just cheapo's found in the drug stores) cause headaches sometimes and I suspect are causing my eyes to become even weaker over time requiring a stronger magnification.

This quote by MusicMan seems a bit similar to the pinhole glasses:

I have found that if you take one of those vehicle magnetic strips with images on them (like a learner plate) they have rows of small holes in them. If you look at an object through that (without your spectacles), you can often resolve the image, perhaps not perfectly, but better than if you were not looking through the perforations

Excuse me Woodsman, I know this isn't your situation but wanted to mention it since the pinhole glasses where brought up and its a good reminder for me. My daughter also has astigmatism so the conversation has given me more understanding on that. Poor dear is so lost without her glasses although when she was in her teens she kept loosing them. I stopped buying them for her after awhile (mean mom!) and let her stumble around for a time thinking this would make her more responsible.

 

[theos]

I'm nearsighted too and my left eye vision is significantly blurrier than my right eye. I've never worn glasses though.

Have any of you ever heard of or tried the Bates method? He theorized that the eye muscles get overworked and need to relax in order for vision to improve.

Check out this Mercola article on the Bates method which includes a you tube video. (There's also loads of you tube videos on restoring eyesight naturally.)

Here's a quote.

Basically, your vision is not compromised because of weak eye muscles. They’re strong enough. They’re just too tensed to work properly, so you have to relax them.

When people have a hard time seeing they typically will squint, which actually makes your vision worse. Squinting is one of the worst things you can do for your vision as it stresses your muscles. I find myself all day long paying attention to this as typical response is to contract your eye muscles and squint.

I haven't tried it out yet but I'm very curious.

 

[duyunne]

I wanted to add something in regards to astigmatism. I have a mild form of it in my right eye. I've noticed that I often sleep face down, right side of my face against my pillow. Most mornings my right eye region would be puffy and harder to 'wake up.' I think that had something to do with how I got astigmatism to begin with. In the past year I've been trying to fall asleep without having my face buried in a pillow.

It's a tough habit for me to break, but the point is, some of you may want to be mindful of how you sleep, if you often find half your face smushed against the pillow for most of the night, is that the same side where you have astigmatism?

Another note is that this same eye can wander when I'm tired. I found it weird optometrists never asked about sleeping positions as I'm certain it has an impact.

 

[Ollie]

...
Have any of you ever heard of or tried the Bates method? He theorized that the eye muscles get overworked and need to relax in order for vision to improve.

Check out this Mercola article on the Bates method which includes a you tube video. (There's also loads of you tube videos on restoring eyesight naturally.)

...

I haven't tried it out yet but I'm very curious.

A friend of mine introduced me to it, about twenty years ago, although she was a devotee I didn't persevere with it to be able to speak of it's effectiveness.

 

[Goemon_]

I'm nearsighted too and my left eye vision is significantly blurrier than my right eye. I've never worn glasses though.

Have any of you ever heard of or tried the Bates method? He theorized that the eye muscles get overworked and need to relax in order for vision to improve.

Check out this Mercola article on the Bates method which includes a you tube video. (There's also loads of you tube videos on restoring eyesight naturally.)

Here's a quote.

Basically, your vision is not compromised because of weak eye muscles. They’re strong enough. They’re just too tensed to work properly, so you have to relax them.

When people have a hard time seeing they typically will squint, which actually makes your vision worse. Squinting is one of the worst things you can do for your vision as it stresses your muscles. I find myself all day long paying attention to this as typical response is to contract your eye muscles and squint.

I haven't tried it out yet but I'm very curious.

I have read Bates's book several years ago. I have done some of the exercises. I have no big problems with my eyes so I haven't been persistent in doing the exercices.
One thing amazed me though. After few sessions I was able to read microscopic writtings.

I have yet to read Aldous Huxley's book on the subjet wich is said do be easiest to read than Bates's book. Aldous Huxley is said to have been treated by the Bates's method when he was almost blind.

My2cents

 

[MusicMan]

I have found that if you take one of those vehicle magnetic strips with images on them (like a learner plate) they have rows of small holes in them. If you look at an object through that (without your spectacles), you can often resolve the image, perhaps not perfectly, but better than if you were not looking through the perforations.

Now that is cool! It almost sounds like you are using the diffraction patterns of light travelling through the small hole to resolve the blurry or repetitive multiple image beyond it ( slit experiment ). In effect performing the purpose of what refraction through a lens may do.

You may be right trendsetter37, there is a slight focusing effect which depends on the distance of the material from the eye. Maybe there is an optical expert who could explain the effect.
Maybe I should combine it with some polaroid lenses and see what happens..

 

[mocachapeau]

I am short sighted... i.e. can see things which are close but not far.

My dear Luke, I think you mean you're near sighted. ;)

Hope all is well.

Short-Sightedness

Near-Sightedness

They are both the same. :)

Given the double sense of the expression "short-sighted", and the winky smiley, I'm pretty sure this was meant as a joke. Also a compliment.

 

[lostinself]

I have found that if you take one of those vehicle magnetic strips with images on them (like a learner plate) they have rows of small holes in them. If you look at an object through that (without your spectacles), you can often resolve the image, perhaps not perfectly, but better than if you were not looking through the perforations.

Now that is cool! It almost sounds like you are using the diffraction patterns of light travelling through the small hole to resolve the blurry or repetitive multiple image beyond it ( slit experiment ). In effect performing the purpose of what refraction through a lens may do.

You may be right trendsetter37, there is a slight focusing effect which depends on the distance of the material from the eye. Maybe there is an optical expert who could explain the effect.
Maybe I should combine it with some polaroid lenses and see what happens..

An interesting thread.

Not sure how common this ability is but i can control the accomodation in my right eye. When looking at a distant object, i'm able to force the eye to move the focus point closer to me and see observed object out-of-focus. Moving the focus point away seems much harder and i haven't been able to achieve this to the date.

Anyway, things that are out of focus indeed seem to be perceived as an overlapping of many images. Just made an experiment: i punched a small 1mm-wide pinhole in a card of paper and looked through it trying to alter the focus distance. I'm unable to make things go completely blurry this way. Instead the image seen through the hole appears smaller. It gets sort of funny when the card is moved away to ~15cm from the eye. When focusing on the object behind the card, it can be seen normally, but when the focus is moved to the edge of the hole - the object gets smaller and fits inside the hole.

In my left eye i have strong astigmatism and can't read even relatively large font. Not really sure it's indeed astigmatism - the image feels flat, weak and kind of grainy (not blurry). When trying to read text in a book, i can see the fine features of the paper's surface but i'm unable to recognize the letters. Looking through a pinhole makes things somewhat clearer but the improvement is not dramatic.

 

[Woodsman]

As I understand pinhole glasses, the reason they work to bring otherwise out-of-focus objects into tighter resolution is that the area of incoming light is smaller, moves straight through the middle of your eye's lens without modification and hits directly on the back of your eye without anything being focused. (Or in this case, un-focused.)

Kind of like how you can bring a photograph into better focus by reducing the aperture size (increasing the F-stop), at the cost of brightness.

(However, I was informed by my optometrist many years ago, that any claims that pinhole glasses can actually improve or repair your vision beyond their immediate optical gimmick, are fraudulent; part of a scam. Regular use of pinhole glasses cannot change the structure of your eyes. -I've never researched to see what was true in this case. It seemed like a reasonable thing to say; that they don't cure anything, but who knows? Eyes, like any biological structures, can change over time given different stimuli.)


-Concerning my original question at the start of this thread, the above image leads me to thinking...

It stands to reason that there is ALWAYS at least a portion of the incoming light which will never be blurred even if a person is near or far sighted. Perhaps it's a matter of attention; the brain separating signal from noise.

-Concerning the William Bates method of eye sight treatment...

It works. I discovered a copy of his book in a garage sale some years ago, read it and tried the exercises, (palming twice a day, two minutes per eye) for about three months. Around week #10, I started getting the clear flashes, which were utterly astonishing! I'd pull away my hand and suddenly the world would be in sharp focus. Wow! I'd sit there, taking it in, afraid to blink, until my eyes stung from being too dry. Then finally I'd blink, and it would be gone. According to William Bates, the clear flashes become more frequent events until one day, they just stick and you'd be in a new, in-focus reality.

Unfortunately, I had a relative come to visit and I needed to rent a car to do some driving for a couple of weeks, which meant putting my glasses back on. According to Bates, wearing glasses for a even a short time slingshots you right back to square one and you have to begin the training again. It takes about a year, he tells us in the book, and I've not felt the need to try again.

This, however, may be something worth pushing for again, but with more determination. I'd like to see clearly, and I wonder if the metaphor of "Seeing Clearly" isn't purely incidental?

 

[A Jay]

I'm nearsighted too and my left eye vision is significantly blurrier than my right eye. I've never worn glasses though.

Have any of you ever heard of or tried the Bates method? He theorized that the eye muscles get overworked and need to relax in order for vision to improve.

Check out this Mercola article on the Bates method which includes a you tube video. (There's also loads of you tube videos on restoring eyesight naturally.)

Here's a quote.

Basically, your vision is not compromised because of weak eye muscles. They’re strong enough. They’re just too tensed to work properly, so you have to relax them.

When people have a hard time seeing they typically will squint, which actually makes your vision worse. Squinting is one of the worst things you can do for your vision as it stresses your muscles. I find myself all day long paying attention to this as typical response is to contract your eye muscles and squint.

I haven't tried it out yet but I'm very curious.

I tried some of the exercises a few years ago, but never kept up with them. However, on occasion I can still walk outside without my glasses on and get the flashes of crystal clear vision after doing some of the exercises.

 

[monotonic]

I've noticed this same effect. I discovered in grade school that if I made a tiny hole with my fingers to look through I would be able to see things far away again.

Also if you put a finger right in front of your eye and look at something along the edge of your finger, you can see that the image gets clearer closer to your finger and and even warps a bit.

 

[Julius]

For everyone who is near-sighted this site helped me to understand many issues regarding my myopia and to be aware of my own vision:

"Glasses make hundreds of billions (!) of dollars for lens manufacturers every year. Optometrists are happy to profit and most consumers prefer a quick fix over better habits and natural 20/20 eyesight."
Endmyopia - Improve Your Eyesight With Science & Habits

 

[MusicMan]

Has anyone tried pinhole glasses to strengthen the muscles of the eyes? Speaking for myself they do work.

Pinhole glasses - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I have not seen pin-hole glasses, but I have tried seeing through a type of pin-hole material which is used for signage. You stick it over a window say on a bus, and the passenger can see out, while people outside only see what's on the sign. I am myopic with a bit of astigmatism, and also am developing cataracts (old age) and I found that the pin-hole does confer some benefit. You could liken it to the effect of sunlight passing through leaves on a tree. On the ground you will see multiple images of the sun, and they are all nicely focused. The cells on the retina each detect this image and then try to piece it together in the brain via the optic nerve. You can test it out by attempting to focus on a particular star in the sky, or maybe something like a red LED on a piece of equipment in a darkened room. What I observe without my spectacles is a multiple of images which my brain cannot resolve into one image. FWIW.

 

[Julius]

What I observe without my spectacles is a multiple of images which my brain cannot resolve into one image. FWIW.

Multiple images are common in myopia, I experience the same thing, a fuzz of about 7-6 overlapping but misaligned images. The interesting part is that when you start putting your glasses aside and take notice, each one of the multiple images is pretty defined and sharp. Jake Steiner from endmyopia.com affirms that if you give it some time eventually the brain will resolve those multiple images into one. And this should be resolved faster and faster as the practice goes on. I have been able to accomplish this a couple of times and achieved a pretty sharp clear vision for a few seconds. It felt like my eyes/visual cortex/visual processor was playing a puzzle moving the images over and under one anothers. I have decades of bad visual training because of using glasses and lens.

 

[SlipNet]

I've been short sighted since the late 80's, gotten used to it though it made me very self conscious at the time. Vanity, I suppose, I was a teenager when it struck. I have to rely on my glasses for everyday life, but sometimes in the evening I mooch about without them if I'm not focussed on things. I guess what I see is much like impressionist art, bold colours with little to no definition.

Interestingly, I also have to make do without glasses if I'm out and about on rainy days. Crossing roads is an experience, that's for sure. I've had a few heart in the mouth moments when in bad weather.