it is fascinating that many people with 20/10 vision see the smallest letters on an eye chart as pulsating

What you are describing is a perfectly normal, fascinating phenomenon caused by a type of involuntary eye movement called microsaccades. When an individual with exceptional 20/10 vision stares intensely at the absolute limit of their visual acuity—the tiny, high-contrast black letters at the very bottom of a Snellen chart—their brain and eyes begin an intricate biological dance that manifests as a "pulsating," "vibrating," or "shimmering" effect. The phenomenon happens due to a few specific reasons:

1. The Role of Microsaccades

Even when you think your eyes are perfectly still, they are constantly executing minute, involuntary tremors called microsaccades. • If your eyes stayed completely locked in one rigid position, the photoreceptors in your retina would stabilize, adjust to the static image, and your vision would actually fade to blank or grey (a phenomenon known as Troxler’s fading). • To prevent this "visual blindness," your eyes constantly refresh the image on your retina by micro-shifting back and forth several times every second.

1. Pushing the Limits of Visual Resolution

For someone with 20/10 vision, the bottom line of the eye chart represents the precise threshold of what their optical system can physically resolve. At this razor-thin edge: • The micro-shifts of the eye move the tiny black letters across different individual light receptors (cones) on the retina. • Because the letters are so microscopic from 20 feet away, a microsaccade that shifts the eye by just a fraction of a millimeter is wide enough to move the image entirely off one cone and onto the next.

1. Neural Interpretation ("Pulsing")

As the sharp image dances across different cones, the brain receives rapid, alternating signals: "Here is a black edge... now it's white... now it's black again." Because the brain is working intensely to stitch these ultra-fine inputs together into a coherent letter, the continuous, hyper-fast optical refreshing translates consciously as a high-frequency vibration or pulsation around the edges of the character. Essentially, people with 20/10 vision aren't experiencing an optical defect; they are actively witnessing their own oculomotor system working at maximum efficiency to keep microscopic details from fading away.

perhaps people with worse than 20/20 vision have less saccadic eye movements?

That is a brilliant and very logical hypothesis, but surprisingly, the science shows that the exact opposite happens: people with worse, uncorrected vision actually have larger and more exaggerated micro-movements, though the overall frequency stays roughly the same. When an individual has visual blur (such as uncorrected myopia or astigmatism), their brain doesn’t make fewer movements. Instead, it alters the nature of the movements due to a couple of distinct physiological adjustments:

1. Calibrating with a "Blurry Target"

Microsaccades are controlled by a feedback loop between the retina and the brain. Their purpose is to keep an image centered perfectly on the most sensitive part of the eye (the fovea). • For someone with 20/10 vision, the focal point is exceptionally sharp. The brain knows exactly where the borders of an object are, so it uses tiny, precise micro-shudders to keep it illuminated. • For someone with worse, uncorrected vision, the image hitting the retina is spread out and fuzzy. Because the brain lacks crisp edges to lock onto, it increases the amplitude (size) of the microsaccades. It sweeps the eye in wider loops, essentially hunting across a larger area to try and find the true center of the object.

1. Fixation Instability

Because the brain is struggling to anchor itself to a blurry image, the eyes suffer from what optometrists call fixation instability. Instead of sitting quietly in one spot and executing tiny, localized refreshes, the eyes drift off-target much faster. The brain then has to constantly trigger larger, corrective jump-backs to recenter the eye.

Why You Don't See the "Pulsing" with Worse Vision

If people with worse vision are making even larger involuntary movements, you might wonder why they don't see the tiny letters pulsing. It comes down to resolution limits: • For a person with 20/40 vision looking at 20/10 letters, the tiny characters simply blur together into a solid gray blob. • Because the letters cannot be resolved as distinct shapes, the micro-movements move a blob across the retina rather than sharp, alternating high-contrast edges. The conscious perception of a clean "vibration" or "pulsation" is lost inside the blur. In short, a person with poorer vision doesn't have a sluggish oculomotor system; their brain is actually working overtime, forcing the eyes to take wider, more unstable sweeps just to make sense of a fuzzy world

So l've been to the eye doctor 4 times this year, each time I thought I was going blind, but when the eye doctor told me everything looks good I would forget about it and move on. But the last couple days I'll take my finger and when I go low enough, I can't see the tip of it in my vision. Am I over analyzing?

i feel like my eyes get worse each year and honestly atp idek what to do. I've been doing eye exercises and trying to go outside more and look far but I haven't seen much improvement. I don't know if it does works or not, or if I'm doing something wrong.
i know that im not gonna get 20/20 vision in a short period of time but I was hoping to see if I could improve it by a bit.

I had to start with readers two years ago. I went to pick up my phone this morning and realized I can read (and type this) without them.

Usually it’s all a blur.

This has happened one other time about a year ago. It only lasted a few hours to a day before my vision was crap again.

Anyone know why/how this is happening?

Hi everyone! :)

Just wanted to share the news that I'm getting ready to reduce my lenses again! :D

I started wearing -1.50 lenses on August 2nd, and today is October 20th, so it took my eyes about two and a half months to adjust to -1.50 lenses.

Before this, I was wearing -1.75 lenses for almost an entire year while I took a hiatus from lense reduction.

I'm a bit concerned that I might be reducing my lenses too early this time, but I've had essentially perfect vision for several days this week while while wearing my -1.50 lenses, so I figured I'd reduce again and see how it goes :)

For the past month or two, I've been trying to be more diligent about doing my core eyesight improvement routine, and I think this has paid off:

• Put a thick blanket over my head in the morning, so that it's dark. Play on my phone in the dark, under the blanket, to induce yawning, which induces tears, to make my eyes less dry.
• Work for 1 hour, then walk outside for 15-20 minutes. Repeat all day.
• Always work directly in front of a picture window, facing the window, or work outside.
• Put a thick blanket over my head and play on my phone before sleep, for the same reasons that I do this in the morning, and also to help my eyes not get as dry from the cold evening air.

(For those who haven't seet it yet, I have a full writeup of my methods and results here)

I'm pretty excited! ^_^

Hello All,

I am a 20 yr old male, have an eyesight issue.

My eyes have floaters.....

Had visited eye doctor around 8 months ago.

But don't use the specs because I used to feel as if my head is spinning and I am going to lose my balance and fall although it never happened.

I am not using specs number is around 1.5 in both eyes.

But no the problem is that head spinning has intensified and could feel it even though not wearing specs.

Will visit doctor next week but please help me temporarily as I have my exams going on please guys.

Also tell if it could be any other reason.

Thank you.

Bates Method Practitioners claim the emotion FEAR is highly influential on people developing myopia. More specifically fear of the future. Elizabeth Holmes was never nearsighted and never required vision correction.

It is very clear from Nathan Fielder's documentary that Elizabeth Holmes was afraid of having to spend 11 years in jail. Interestingly, just before having to go to jail she developed myopia. She was afraid of her future.

I am 24 year old , always had prescription glasses .5 in each eye, never too bothering , but for past 6 -10 months my eyes are getting worse , yesterday i went to play cricket and i was surprised that i couldn't see the ball come at me nor the faces of the fielders and the bowler !
Every time i start working on my pc i struggle to read documents and have to rum to my glasses .
In pure desperation i have found this subreddit and want to know what can i do to improve it ? i am genuinely scared and od not wish to have prescription glasses . My phone screen on time is about 8-9 hrs apart form working on my PC , is that a reason ? or my sleeping habits ? i work out eat healthy and take care of myself , no bad habits as such .
What can i do to improve my vision , where should i start ?
I need help , Please , I do not want to quit my sport because of my eyes ..

How much time does it take out of your day?

Is it the daily walk an essential to have big improvement ?

Hello. I am 22 years old and have amblyopia in my left eye, as well as astigmatism in both eyes. I have consulted many doctors, tried wearing an eye patch, and used glasses, but nothing has helped. I don’t know what to do or how to proceed. I struggle significantly with reading and learning, and unfortunately, I haven't been able to build a career because of these issues. Life feels meaningless. I tried to pursue a path in the field of data, but I couldn't complete it. What should I do?

So umm, I'm around 13-17 years old from asia at this point and for the past couple of years I already experienced having my vision being clear when I keep my eyes open or when I close my left eye, but when I close my right eye it just basically blurs out half of my surroundings except when I come close or there's big letters. No prescription glasses, no any other type of glasses, nothing. Probably when I was nine, I was thinking it was basically due to early exposure of gadgets when I was eight or because of me being diagnosed with a neurological disorder (Autism Spectrum Disorder) as well as an attention disorder (ADHD), I had eye checkups at my school where basically the students had their eyes checked. The first one was my previous school year when after the usual procedure but the previous doctor said I need to have glasses but I didn't tell that to anyone, then came the current school year where the checkup happened again and this time, the other doctor said that I needed further checkup which both of these results just confuses me because the outcome doesn't make sense.

Although I haven't seen a gradual increase of floaters nor the blur being worse over the past few years, it so happened to worry me a little because I'm not sure if I needed glasses or if I'm fine without them. I hadn't been diagnosed with short-sightedness, stroke, or anything (because that's what I only know), and I was wondering if those processed crap you eat is gonna cause your vision to be blurry because I saw this Indian kids channel where there's two siblings eating their food which the girl eats vegetables while the boy eats junk food and because of that overtime; the kid basically has bad eyesight which might feel like it's misleading, it's sickening to look at these types of stuff, I'm so done with it.

(also, I'm controlling myself by putting on blue-light filter/reading mode on my phone and I personally sometimes have a low-medium screen time approximately 4-9+ hours)

What to do? Should I reduce it? It's blurry and can't see beyond a small distance and my eyes are dry and it looks bulged.

​

Hey everyone! I'm 16 years old, and I wanted to ask people who have myopia or have experienced something similar.

Recently, I found out that I have -0.50 D (mild myopia) in my right eye and 0.00 power in my left eye. Both my eyes reportedly have 6/6 vision.

Here are some details about my situation:

- Age: 16 years old.

- Right eye: -0.50 D.

- Left eye: 0.00 D.

- Vision: Both eyes reportedly test at 6/6.

- Symptoms: I don't experience headaches, eye pain, itching, or any noticeable discomfort when I'm not wearing glasses.

- Family history: No known family history of myopia, although my mother had hypermetropia (farsightedness).

- Medical consultation: Three doctors reportedly measured -0.50 in my right eye and 0.00 in my left eye. I was told that wearing glasses was optional.

- Glasses experience: I wore glasses for one day and felt that distant objects seemed blurrier after I took them off. Before getting tested, I hadn't really noticed any vision problems.

Now I'm confused about whether I should wear glasses regularly or only when necessary.

Here are my main questions for people with myopia:

1. If you have -0.50 power in only one eye, do you wear glasses all day, only while studying, or only when looking at distant objects?

2. If you don't have headaches, eye pain, or noticeable blurry vision, is there any real benefit to wearing glasses regularly at this prescription?

3. Does wearing or not wearing glasses at such a low prescription affect how quickly myopia progresses? I've heard conflicting opinions about this.

4. Has anyone had -0.50 power at my age and managed to keep it stable for years?

5. Did anyone else feel that their vision was temporarily blurrier after removing glasses, even after wearing them for just one day?

6. Since my mother had hypermetropia rather than myopia, does that tell me anything meaningful about my chances of developing more myopia?

I'm not looking for a diagnosis from Reddit. I'd really appreciate hearing about your personal experiences, especially from people who had a similar prescription during their teenage years.

If you were in my situation, what would you do, and what advice did your eye doctor give you?

Thanks!

Hi, my (17 F) vision is sort of getting worse. so for some background i already have pretty bad vision from childhood till now (around -13? i think) but recently (this time last year) i started college (UK) and i realised that i could see the board properly which was weird because ive always been able to see normally (with my glasses on ofc) but i didn’t think that much of it since most of my the work we did was on laptops/computers and i took pictures of the board, anyways as time passed (around 3-4 months) it started getting way worse so i decided to tell me mum and she booked me an opticians appointment and everntaully that appointment came. During the appointment, my optician realised that my vision was getting worse so she booked an appointment for me at a retinal eye hospital which took about 1-2 months. So that appointment happens and the opthomolgist told me (after a few scans) that there was a scar on the back of my eye (sorry if this isn’t specific enough it was awhile ago so i don’t remember much of what she said 😭) and that there was a treatment that she could do for me to help it where she would put a needle in my eye and then prescribe me eye drops to use, and this would happen 3 times over 3 months. Anwya the three months go by and it improves a little but i’m still not able to see as properly as before.

So school started again about a month ago and unfortunelty it hasn’t improved, i’ve had a checkup appointment about a week or two ago and they said it’s improved slightly but i feel like it’s the same maybe even a teensy bit worse 💔…

ive checked others pages on naturally improving vision (atleast as best as i can) and ive tried to use my electronics less and get more sunlight.

The reason i’m coming to reddit now is because i’m in year 13 now, meaning i’m applying to go to university next year to do a healthcare degree but obviously i can’t do that if i am not able to see properly (the de hr we has placement). Yes i know i can take a gap year but what if even bu the time the gap year finished i cant see properly. im just really scared not only for university but for life, i mean how am i meant to do things like order for myself like before if i cant even see the menu, or continue doing exams if i have to keep squinting and having the paper 🤏 close to my face.

Sorry if this doesn’t make sense, if anyone sees this and is confused, you can ask questions and i’ll try to explain it better.

I’ve been working on improving my eyesight naturally for about five years now, and I thought I’d share where I’m at.

I started with Endmyopia about 5 years ago. Fell into the trap of blur adaptation and once went back from my N7's all the way to my N2's. After 5 years finally I figured this wasn't going to work for me. I was born with cataract in one eye, which I think is the biggest hurdle why for me this method didn't work. Well..at least I buy cheap glasses now and am not wearing overcorrected glasses anymore.

For a few months I made a walk everyday the Mark Warren way, focusing on how objects move relative to each other and relaxing. This led to my first clear flash. For about 10 seconds I saw crystal clear. This is 3 or 4 years ago, don't know why I stopped the practice.

Recently I started Nathan Oxenfeld’s Holistic Vision Program. I was invited to join the Facebook group. So I thought YES! Now I can see how other people are getting back to 20/20. Which was a huge disappointment. More than 400 members, but the group is deader than death.

I’ve started going without glasses much more often. I now cycle without them and have even started leaving them off in social situations and when travelling. Interestingly, I notice that I actually feel more relaxed socially without my glasses, even though obviously my vision is less sharp. The eye without cataract is about -4 with -2 astigmatism.. The other one is actually +7 or something according to the last eye exam, I think because of the cataract in it..

One thing that struck me recently was the observation by someone else that even people who were extremely dedicated, self-aware and consistent often needed three years or more to get back to 20/20, like Steiner, Oxenfeld and Warren.

I am extremely interested in story's from people with serious improvements. What changed when you finally started seeing consistent improvement?

Nathan Oxenfeld said knowing about his past traumas or something like that, getting to the cause of why his vision got worse, led to real change. For Jake Steiner it was sticking to the reduced lens protocol. For Mark Warren it was mostly mental, although he did exercises the whole day, saying they weren't exercises, but the right way of looking.

What will be the trick for me to a life without glasses?

I am approaching my eyesight only mentally anymore for quite some time. I am using ACIM (A Course in Miracles), which has a mind training workbook to see the world in a new way. When I started it a few years ago I had the most change in my eyesight so far. That got me to think, but I couldn't figure out the Course and I forgot it for a while. But because nothing else gave me results in the coming years I went back to the Workbook of ACIM and I am very satisfied since I focus on that. Even though with other Methods and Ideas there were some changes, but it never felt solid in the mind and very fluctuating. I am going through the Lessons daily applying them to my eyesight as well as to other situations in my life.

I got this a while ago and totally forgot what it means, but I would like to get eye contacts since wearing my glasses ruins my makeup. Is anyone able to help me understand what my prescription means exactly?

Hi everyone, I recently ran into this subreddit after looking into eye health. I recently went to the eye doctor and have noticed that the astigmatism in my left eye has gotten worse since my last checkup (which was a year ago). My eye doctor has said that if I want to, I can wear glasses when working (he recommends it). Thing is, with both eyes open I have normal clear vision (maybe my brain prioritizes the right eye's input more?).

A bit new to all of this so I'm bit overwhelmed with all the information on the sub. I've also seen comments say that the eye exercises help myopia but make astigmatism worse? Not sure what to make of that.

6 years ago I got a second monitor and placed it to the left of my main monitor. I suspect that may be what caused the astigmatism in my left eye? Not sure. Anyway I've gotten rid of the second monitor and use only one monitor directly in front of me (about 100 cm away from me).

Any help or advice is appreciate. Thanks so much and God bless you all!

I got a 390 Piece Set for ~$22 USD. These things are fun to put together and very stimulating for your vision. Try putting them together without your glasses on.

Presctiptions and timeline

• Late 2023: OD: -4.75, Cyl -2.00 (Axis 180) | OS: -4.75, Cyl -1.50 (Axis 180).
• Late 2024: Checked, told vision barely changed, kept using old glasses.
• Recent months: Heavy screen time/studying led to severe eye strain, fatigue, and glare/light sensitivity by the end of the day. Distance vision still felt fine.
• 2 weeks ago (Doctor #1): Claimed a big jump (+0.75 to +1.00 increase).
  • OD: -5.25, Cyl -2.50, Axis 175
  • OS: -5.50, Cyl -1.75, Axis 170
• Today (Doctor #2 - Dilated exam): Total opposite result.
  • OD: -5.00, Cyl -1.75, Axis 5
  • OS: -4.50, Cyl -1.75, Axis 175

I'm leaning toward the second doctor since my distance vision is fine, and I'm worried that blindly accepting a much stronger prescription will over-correct and harm my eyes. Plus, my right axis flipped from 180 to 5!

My questions are:

1. Can I do anything naturally to improve my vision in this situation? Are there visual habits, exercises, or rest routines that help?
2. Can severe eye strain, fatigue, and light sensitivity/glare be reversed or reduced?
3. Are these strain and light symptoms independent of my actual myopia progression, or are they purely a byproduct of computer/screen fatigue?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Any natural ways to improve: 20/30 Vision, Astigmatism (one eye) with Dry eye?

(Natural meaning other ways besides glasses, contacts or surgery) Thank you!

I have really bad eyesight, and I’ve never felt good about it. I haven’t gone to a clinic to get my eyes checked since 9th grade because I don’t like anyone knowing how bad my eyesight is. It makes me feel insecure.
I also don’t want to wear glasses because I wear scarf, and I feel like glasses make my scarf look awkward. 💔