Eye exercises are designed to strengthen your eye muscles, assist you in focusing, ease the movement of your eyes, and activate the vision center of your brain. Vision therapy, which consists of eye exercises, can improve eye coordination and lead to better overall visual performance.

Although there are no specific eye exercises for myopia, some eye exercises can be performed to alleviate the symptoms of eye strain. Regular eye exercise may not be effective in slowing down the progression of myopia but would be expected to reduce the decline in uncorrected distance visual acuity that is typically observed among children as they age as a result of increased myopia.¹

Some exercises are:²

• Focus workout- In a seated position, hold one finger a few centimeters from your eyes and focus on it. Gradually move your finger further away, while continuing to focus. After a quick break, look back at your finger and keep it focused as you move it back toward your eyes.
• Focus workout - This is a similar exercise, but with a wider range. It involves switching your focus between an object around 20cm away, and one around 5-10m away. For best results, repeat 5 times in one sitting.
• Figure-of-eight exercise - Sit looking at the floor. With your eyes focused at a point around 5 meters from your seat, trace a figure-of-eight pattern. After 30 seconds, reverse the direction of your figure of eight.

A study was conducted including students who completed the eye exercises of acupoints. Traditional Chinese "eye exercises of acupoints" have been a standard practice for easing visual symptoms and reducing myopia among schoolchildren. This is done for five minutes in the morning and again in the afternoon. Those individuals who participated in the eye exercises on a consistent basis showed signs of a potential preventive impact against myopia, which translated to a lower degree of progression in myopia. After making adjustments for the student's age, gender, and the average refractive error of their parents, as well as the amount of time spent near work and outdoor activity, this protective impact became statistically significant.¹

In addition, when compared to students who never performed the eye exercises, those who performed them seriously less than three times per week and those who performed them every time per week had a reduced risk of developing myopia. Students who never performed eye exercises had the highest risk of developing myopia. After accounting for the same potential confounding factors, it was discovered in the study students who practiced the eye exercises of acupoints seriously each time per week had a lower risk of having myopic eyesight. In addition to this, it was found that students in grades one and two who performed the eye exercises with a "serious attitude" had improvements in their visual acuity.³

Eye exercise help to strengthen eye muscles help to focus, ease eye movements and stimulate brain’s vision centre.² They can not replace the vision corrections means like glasess or contact lenses or surgeries. Hence it is important to practice the good health habits and correction methods along with eye exercise for good vision.