Can you improve your eyesight by looking into the sun?
No. But many people believe you can.
‘Sunning’ is one of the techniques used by the still-popular Bates method. Some people believe that you can train your eyes to improve your eyesight by exercising the ciliary muscle, a muscle within the eye, which adjusts the curvature of the eye’s lens.
The method, invented by physician William Bates (1860–1931) is based on the belief that eyesight problems are caused by tension of the muscles surrounding the eyeball. Bates recommended to ditch the glasses and instead practice exercises including ‘palming’ (covering your eyes for minutes at a time), ‘visualisation’ (imagining images etc), ‘movement’ (shifting the eyes back and forth) and ‘sunning’ – directing the sun onto the eye with a “burning glass”!
Despite the fact that the Bates method has been widely discredited by medical professionals there are many people who still practice the method to this day! (This website does not advocate it, please do not try this at home!)
