Hey, [s2Get user_field=”first_name” /]. Big topic today. Strap in!
Prescription lenses are necessary and useful. They are necessary and useful, to help provide proper rehabilitative stimulus.
Prescriptions are a risk to eye health, when they are worn to mask a symptom (eye strain), when they are overprescribed (normal ‘full prescriptions’, in most cases), and when a full correction prescription is worn while focused up close. As such, and as you well know by now (but it always bears repeating), prescriptions are to be used with caution.
You don’t want to reduce prescriptions too quickly. Everything we do from here on out, is generally a ten-week-interval at minimum, for prescription changes. Let’s make sure to keep this in mind.
Likewise, you need to push on with prescription changes, as your centimeter measurements and subjective impressions suggest. Use the forum, if in doubt!
At this point, we want to start considering wearing the normalized prescription a bit less.
A few Caveats
- If you are at -2D normalized or lower, this is necessary work for you.
- If you are at -3D normalized or lower, you should do this one or two days per week (or more, if you feel comfortable)
- If you are at -4D normalized or lower, drop a line in the forum.
- If you are any higher than -4D, save this session for later.
The idea for the following new habit exercise is, that (as always), we need stimulus. Varying stimulus, without excessive change, with a focus on real life scenario (vs. arbitrary exercise).
So far we identified three of the five primary focal planes of myopia rehabilitation work:
- Close-up without corrective lenses
- Close-up with differential prescription
- Distance with normalized prescription
Today, let’s add the fourth:
Medium Distance, No Corrective Lenses
While I generally advise against going without any corrective lenses, this is the time to make a finer distinction.
If you wear no lenses and the world around you is blurry, nothing happens to improve your eyesight. It is actually less than ideal on many fronts, and I generally suggest to be slightly under prescribed for close-up and distance scenarios. We want to spend a lot of time with sharp vision, and part of our time at the edge of focus.
So far we only looked at focus as up-close, and distance. There is a lot more to it though, than those two modes. As rehab is a slow process, and I want you to build habits, it is generally best to introduce concepts slowly, over time. If we do it all at once, you won’t get the benefit of each successive step.
The medium distance is one you probably spend quite a bit of time in.
You may have noticed that whenever I talk about the normalized prescription, I say: “Go outside”. That is because I want you to get more than medium distance exposure, with that focal plane correction.
In reality though, you spend a lot of time indoors. From the garage to the kitchen, to the living room, to the office. The backyard. At work, the elevator, break room, bathroom, offices, conference rooms. All that is medium distance. If you are at -2D, that medium distance is a candidate for no-correction for you. It is still a bit too blurry for most participants, in the -2D to -3.5D range. There is no need (or benefit) to never wearing your normalized prescription at medium distance.
In upcoming sessions we will be spending more time in this opportunity space, though. This is a space where no correction, normalized prescription, and even differential prescription make sense. We will apply all of these (in moderation!), to give us a bit more room for stimulus.
For this installment, we focus on the prescription-less scenario:
If you drive to the office, consider leaving your normalized prescription in the car, one day. See how you do. If you can’t recognize your boss or find your cubicle, then this is premature (and not beneficial, neither for your career, nor vision improvement). But if you can read name tags on office doors, descriptions for floors in the elevator, if you are close to focus, then this is for you.
The range is anywhere from one to two days a week (or even just part of the time, in medium distance, during one day), to full time. A -1.5D normalized prescription is a prime candidate to go away completely, at medium distance.
This all depends a bit on your individual case. Your eyesight improvement goals, how quickly you are improving, your lifestyle, age, your eyes ability to accommodate, ambient lighting, comfort level. Try it out, and post in the forum.
Spend time pulling a bit of focus, with no prescription, at medium distance.
The other component of this fourth plane is to increase your comfort level with no prescription at medium distance. This will make the normalized prescription feel like a more dramatic change, and help push you further in your distance work (pulling focus, outside). This will also help you further build the reality of prescriptions as temporary aids, and always keep active focus involved in your day.
A quick reminder: If you haven’t done centimeter lately, go check it. Look at your Snellen, too. Is your normalized and differential prescription still accurate? Remember that for continued progress, keeping these focal plane adjustments at an ideal level, is key to lock in your accomplishments to date.
Another way to deal with the medium distance is a strategic reduction in normalized prescription. We’ll talk about that and various other ways to maximize the benefits of just the right amount of correction, in upcoming sessions. 😉
Cheers,
-Jake
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