Contact lenses are said to have many advantages over glasses such as giving you a complete line of vision instead of the broken vision that you get when wearing glasses but have you ever stopped to think   how you can improve your vision naturally without the need for expensive contact lenses in the first place?

Wearing contact lenses for long durations spanning many days can cause side effects such as itching or possible discharge of mucus.

Continual wear of contact lenses is said to lead to damage of the top layer of cells within your eye caused by decreased oxygen to those cells.

Infections caused by bacteria can lead to possible side effects such as white spots which,  if untreated and allowed to persist,  can cause  the infection to spread into the inside of the eye itself.

The novelty factor  of patterned  or colorful contact  lenses that seem to have sprung up everywhere, which I feel are aimed primarily at the younger generation, are neither good in terms of hygiene or actually improving your vision whatsoever.  They are merely a novelty factor, which if used incorrectly with bad hygiene practices, can lead to unnecessary  infections.

You may be thinking you wear your contact lenses correctly,  have  a rigid regime of taking them out at night, wash your hands before and after,  but have you ever thought of not having to have the inconvenience of  wearing contact lenses in the first place?

It is I think, not really possible to know the true cost of lenses, which is entirely  dependent on the type and style, the duration of use etc.,  but  when scrutinized, can add up to a considerable amount of money over time. This is just the hidden  monetary costs, the true cost of which is bad eyesight.  Would it not  be best to strive for good vision that we all desire?

William Horatio Bates was a person who believed in such a thing, he was a well known ophthalmologist  who invented the so called  Bates Method.   Many believed that your  eye lens was responsible for the way in which your eyes focused,  Bates did not.  His view was  quite simple - strain placed on your eyes  was the reason that caused  vision  to go bad, just like it would any muscle within your body.

He invented certain eye exercises that could give relaxation and improve your vision in the process.

Just like athletes  need to rest their muscles, Bates also believed in the same principles when it came to the muscles within your eyes.  He too believed that the muscles within eyes needed time to relax in order to get the best possible level of vision from them.

There are many advantages to the Bates Method such as the relaxation techniques that are given to the eyes with simple but effective exercises.  Not only this,  the avoidance of expensive costs related to contact lenses, the exercises are non intrusive, do not involve any eye surgery whatsoever which, like any other surgery, has risks and complications attached to it.

However, like any form of exercise that you do, be it running, swimming, any sport for that matter,  you should not be fooled by the simplicity of the exercises, but realize that like any other form of exercise repetition will bring about results, you need to have discipline in order to do so and get the desired improvement in vision. 

You may feel all this talk of exercises is making you ‘tired' and that  with contact lenses you can just simply take them out and slip them into your eyes.  True, but for how long would you be prepared to do this assuming that your eyesight does not deteriorate and you can continue using them.