please tell me about lower strength glasses so as not to strain my eyes , I started eye exercises with 3.25 , my sharp vision was at 3.5 then I got sharp at 3.25 then I dropped to 2.75 , after a while I felt strain but there was still a blurr so the teacher told to drop again so I dropped to -2.25 , it was blurry
I used 2.25 for 4 months, I got eye allergy ,No improvement , my eyes hurt , when I try to wear 2.75 my eyes hurt a lot but I am trying to force my eyes on it since my sharp vision is 3.25 so the best so as not to strain my eyes to use 2.75 which is lower by 0.5 when I improve use 2.25
Please somebody tell me about reduced prescription how to make use of it without eye strain
I am interested in this also. I was going to ask my eye doctor to give me the weakest prescription possible so that I could pass the driving test and go from there. Is there a better way to go about it? I didn't even think about eye strain becoming a problem
Since I started practicing the Bates method my glasses have started hurting my eyes if I wear them for too long (I have only been wearing them to work on the computer, which is about 1 hour a day). I haven't seen dramatic results in the month that i've been doing this, so i'm afraid that I'll need to get a new pair of glasses before school starts at the end of August and i'll need to wear them more often. I really hate buying a new pair knowing that I am hoping to not need them in a few months anyway. So americas best eyeglasses has two for one at like $70 or so. I am thinking of getting two pairs, one one diopter down and another two diopters down. Obviously the eye doctor would know, but just for my benefit, ... I have a -4.5 in one eye and a -4.75 in the other. That means I would get a pair at -3.5 and a pair at -2.5? I don't really know how the numbering system works
The Bates method doesn't work this way. The way your vision went down from one prescription to the next is not the same way it is going to go back up. There is no secret formula to getting reduced prescriptions and your times would be used more wisely practicing the method rather than searching for one. You may never be able to see well with a lower prescription and still be able to restore your vision to 20/20. I know there are exceptions but that I believe is more about what people want to accept for themselves. If you had -5.00 full prescription, why would you limit your level of relaxation to let's say -4.0 diopters when your clear flashes are much better? It doesn't make sense.
Instead, try adjusting your life as much as possible to lower vision for the time being. Get closer to your monitor but take frequent brakes for exercises. Ask your family to be supportive for a while. You will not strain your eyes more if you do the exercises seriously and frequently enough.
Drive less if possible and know that wearing glasses for just a short duration for safety will be fine. Try swinging & shifting even when you do have to have glasses on.
This is just my opinion, but I am biased and stubborn. If I can help it, I don't want to throw another penny to the optometry industry any more!!! :-)
Cheers!
... OK, but here is an idea. If you do want lower stuff to drive, etc. Find someone (some people) with lower prescription or old prescription glasses that they kept and ask if you could borrow them. Get as many as possible :-) Then ask someone to drive you around while you switch them around on your face. See if you can find the best prescription for driving that way. (Try it in bad visibility conditions too, in order to not cheat yourself!) You cannot trust the optometrist to help you in this since their test is limited to their stupid black letters over white background in artificial lighting. Nothing to do with the real test of seeing in the World out there!
Others have mentioned a magical website a few times on this forum, where you can get away with ordering prescription glasses without having the official document in your hand. You just kind of have to become an expert at these numbers. ZenniOptical.com
Sorry to drag this topic back up. I believe that quitting glasses cold turkey will probably help me achieve better eyesight faster, but I am a student and I have to read the board, so I need to wear glasses. There was a website that somebody linked a while ago where I could buy glasses without having a prescription for like $8. I have asked around and I can't find any old glasses, has anybody had success by incrementally lowering their prescription? I feel ike it might strain my eyes less when I have to wear glasses to wear a lesser prescription. Any other thoughts on how to affect a change when I must see the board?
Someone sent me a PM yesterday asking about this, saying they're -9 and -7 with astigmatism and "can't see anything" without their glasses. First, please don't send me a PM about something that belongs on the forum proper -- there are a lot of other wise helpful people here, many of whom are improving faster than I am. Second, I challenge the "can't see anything" statement: can you see dark vs. light? Can you see color? Can you see shapes, however blurry? Can you see something 6 inches from your nose? You're just not used to looking without your glasses. If you don't look, you won't see!
I'm not an eye doctor and have no authority to prescribe lenses for anyone, including myself. I encourage you to find a behavioral optometrist who will work with you to give you 20/40 glasses and monitor your progress. It's not legal in most places in the U.S. to drive with a weaker correction than this, plus it's not safe, plus you'll probably be so anxious and straining that you're not doing yourself any good at all, to say nothing of endangering others. Test yourself with a snellen, and if you can see 20/20 or better with your glasses, they're too strong for you and will impede your improvement. If you want to try to do this on your own, you can order very inexpensive glasses from Zenni Optical at http://www.zennioptical.com/home.php with only the prescription and PD (pupil distance or distance between your pupils in millimeters). When you get them use your snellen and make sure you can see 20/40 with them if you intend to drive.
My behavioral optometrist says he usually reduces strong prescriptions by at least a diopter for new patients, and takes out the astigmatism correction completely if it's less than 2, otherwise he reduces it by 2 so they won't be completely disoriented. I'm the messenger, not the doctor, but you can use this as a rough guideline. Do as much without glasses as you can safely and feeling comfortable (not scared) -- you want to move from needing them to needing them sometimes to being annoyed that you need them to doing without them most of the time. Good luck.
It took me this forever to track down my prescription. Anyway, since school started I have been forced to wear my lenses all the time and my eyes have been hurting a lot. I guess that's related to the work I did to help my eyesight without lenses before this semester started. Anyway, I'm going to try and order a pair of weaker lenses to see if that will help and I wanted to ask for suggestions really quick as I don't fully understand how the prescription works. I found my last three prescriptions:
1/16/09 SPH CYL AXIS PD
OD -5.5 -3.75 11 31 1/2
OS -4.75 -3.75 177 31 1/2
I don't fully understand how the prescription works. I guess I would reduce it to something like:
-4 -3 5
-4 -3 9
I am not trying to get a doctors note, I won't be driving in them really because I pretty much ride my bicycle everywhere. This is all for a $10 pair of lenses that I hope will help me on my way.
Did you go to a different optometrist for the 2007 test? That's a very different prescription, almost like a very strong myopia prescription was offset by a positive cylindrical cut to get to about the same cut as in the 2006 and 2009 glasses.
It will be trial and error, to see if this is comfortable for you. The only problem I see is in what you suggest is in the axis you wrote. don't change the PD (pupilliary distance) or the axis of your astigmatism. I don't see why you made it 5 and 9 in your suggestion. The OD is for your right eye, OS is left, SPH is a spherical cut, CYL is a cylinder cut. The cylinder is not symmetrical so it has an axis. So if you change the axis number of the cylinder, it will be turned a different way than prescribed. Keep the 11 and 177, but be aware that the axis can change a lot over time, so if you are unhappy with the glasses you end up with, it will probably be worth it to negotiate a reduced prescription pair with a real optometrist. Just tell them you need them for close computer work, since distance glasses are meant for 6 meters or further. A behavioral optometrist would be even better to consult since they would have more experience with reducing prescriptions.
sorry! I wrote it in a hurry, I hope I explained all the terms well enough!
Think of the prescription like instructions for someone cutting the glasses. The PD is the distance between your eyes, so with this number they set where the center of the cuts will be. The SPH is a spherical cut that will be ground convex or concave depending on whether it is a + or - diopter. The CYL will also be cut in convex or concave. It also has an AXIS, which, tells the person cutting it at what angle to cut the cylinder in the glass. If in doubt, ask your optometrist (since I'm not one and can only write what I know based on my experience with this)
I have been happy with cheep glasses ordered online. But when I compare them to the higher index (better material) used by an optometrist, I can tell a difference. I can actually see better through glasses given to me by my optometrist, even though they are the same prescription as the cheap online ones, because the quality of the glass (well, they are all plastic these days) is better.
the other thing to remember is (for everyone out there), even though this thread is in the Bates method topic, reduced prescription glasses aren't the Bates method. and they aren't a substitute for practicing the method without glasses as often as possible... but since so many posts on the forum are about getting reduced glasses, I think people get the wrong idea about how the method works. that's just a mini-rant, no one take it personally. I used reduced prescription glasses a lot when I started and even sometimes still, and I remember about how worried I was before getting the first ones. So I understand. but, later I realized that my progress was linked to the amount of time spent practicing the method without glasses, not which glasses I was wearing for work.
I just got my new glasses from Zenni today! I was very excited but as soon as I put them on they hurt my eyes and head. I have been barely wearing any corrective lenses but in order to drive to work I need something.
My prescription is -6, -2.5,180 in both eyes and the weaker lenses I got are -4.5, -2, 180. I thought they would not hurt but it was like an instant headache. Are there any suggestions on why or what I can do? I do the Bayes method along with pranic healing often, and two days discovered I have a head tilt which I think is related to my astigmatism. I can drive with a headache for 20 minutes, but it would be nicer if it didn't hurt!
You've got a fairly strong prescription both in the SPH for myopia and the CYL for astigmatism. As I've said before, without working with a behavioral optometrist, you're just guessing at the numbers for the new prescription, and it could be too strong for you, or too weak. Either one could give you a headache as your eyes try to see through it. If you have an eye chart, please check your vision with that with the new glasses, to make sure you can see well enough to drive safely and legally. If you can see 20/20 or better, the new glasses are too strong.
I use reduced prescriptions glasses at home only, but I prefer to use contact lenses and plus lenses above the contacts when needed for close work. Theres no comparison between a reduced contact lens prescription and a reduced prescription glasses, the feedback your eye get on the contacts is far superior.
Sometimes you notice improvement on you sight with 1 hour of plus lenses over contacts, which does not happen with the same amount of time and diopters using a reduced prescription. I dont know why but I have some theories.
