Sunning

Sunning is, together with palming, one of the eye relaxation technique proposed by dr. Bates, according to which some vision problems such as myopia, presbyopia or astigmatism can be improved by doing daily exercises in order to relax the eyes. In addition to this, on the basis of this method, the exercises should not just bring benefit to the vision but play also a role in relaxing the mind to help us face the daily life with calm and serenity, and this is not a small thing! Nowadays the eyes are very stressed, with smartphones, tablets, laptops and unenlightening rooms and the consequences can be tired and red eyes, dry eyes, problems in focusing the vision, for this reason the eye relaxation and regeneration exercises proposed by Bates can be really useful. In order to practice with sunning the best is to find a moment during the day to expose the face to sunlight, avoid midday, if sunlight is not possible the light of lamps can be an alternative. Take a chair, sit down and take off your glasses or contact lens, close the eyes and turn your face to the light, start now moving slowly the head from the bottom up, from right to left, the sun rays should touch every point of the eyes. Stay in this pose for five minutes, don’t rub your eyes and, if your eyes start watering, cover alternatively with a hand. After the sunning open the eyes without watching at the direct light and massage gently the area around the eyes, then, you can do the palming, another exercises proposed by Bates and that was the subject of a previous post. Although the sunning technique has been highly debated since the very beginning, in the recent years different studies have demonstrated its validity. Among all the studies we can mention the article Zhu et al, Investigative ophthalmology and visual science, 2010. The scientists have observed that the previous exposure to intense light acts as a protection on the retina when it is, at a later stage, subjected to stress conditions that can damage it. This may be explained by considering that the previous exposition to intense light should play a role in the formation of antioxidant elements that have a protective action on the retina.