BITESIZE | How to Train Your Eyes & Rewire Your Brain for Better Focus & Less Stress | Dr Bryce Appelbaum #676
Neuro-optometrist Dr. Bryce Appelbaum explains how vision impacts thinking, feeling, and performance beyond just eyesight. He discusses the link between vision and stress, offering simple exercises to support the visual system and overall health.
Deep Dive Analysis
12 Topic Outline
Introduction to Neglected Visual System
Symptoms of Functional Vision Problems
Vision Problems as Brain Problems
The Mismatch of Modern Visual Demands
Vision's Link to Stress and Fight-or-Flight
Impact of Screen Time on Visual System
Personal Experience of Visual System Improvement
Evolutionary Mismatch in Visual Use
Practical Exercises for Visual Health
Differences Between Screens and Books
Benefits of Eye Stretches and Peripheral Pointing
Unlocking Potential Through Vision Neuroplasticity
6 Key Concepts
Eyesight vs. Vision
Eyesight is how well one can see at a certain distance, often corrected by glasses or contacts. Vision, however, is a brain function involving how eyes move, converge, track, focus, process information, and derive meaning to direct action.
Functional Vision Problem
These are brain problems manifesting through the eyes, where the visual system cannot withstand the demands placed upon it. Symptoms include reading difficulties, eye strain, headaches, and fluctuating eyesight, often stemming from fatigued focusing or eye coordination systems.
Tunnel Vision (Visual Stress)
Under stress, the human visual system, part of the brain, causes pupils to widen and vision to lock in, blocking out peripheral information. This fight-or-flight response is meant for immediate danger but is now constantly activated by prolonged screen use.
Peripheral Vision
The ability to see objects and movement outside of the direct line of sight. Activating soft peripheral vision, such as looking at a horizon, can engage the parasympathetic nervous system, promoting relaxation and reducing stress.
Optic Flow
The apparent motion of objects, surfaces, and edges in a visual scene caused by the relative motion between an observer and the scene. It helps de-stress the visual system and improves eye coordination, particularly during activities like walking.
Neuroplasticity of Vision
The brain's ability, at any age, to rewire itself and improve visual function with appropriate work, motivation, and compliance. This means visual performance can be enhanced and optimized through targeted exercises.
5 Questions Answered
Symptoms include avoiding reading, losing place while reading, eye strain, headaches, tired or dry eyes, brain fog, general fatigue, and eyesight fluctuations throughout the day. These indicate the visual system is struggling to meet demands.
Prolonged screen time forces our vision, thinking, and attention into a tunneled state, promoting a fight-or-flight stress response. This can lead to reduced patience, inability to think divergently, and a general feeling of being tensed up.
Reading physical books involves a more consistent working distance, less organized eye movements, and provides tactile feedback that helps the brain accurately position the text in space. Screens, conversely, demand more from focusing muscles, have high-energy light, contrast, glare, and flicker, and can trigger dopamine release that encourages prolonged, stressful engagement.
Yes, vision is a direct reflection of brain function, so if there's cognitive fatigue, brain fog, or reduced productivity, vision often plays a role in taxing the system. Functional vision problems are essentially brain problems manifesting through the eyes.
Accessing soft peripheral vision, like looking at a horizon, activates the parasympathetic nervous system, which promotes relaxation and switches off stress. Conversely, a state of visual stress often leads to tunnel vision, blocking out peripheral input.
5 Actionable Insights
1. Practice 20-20-20 Rule
Every 20 minutes of screen time, take a 20-second break to look at something at least 20 feet away. This helps relieve tension in the focusing system, preventing eye strain, fatigue, and headaches.
2. Expand Peripheral Awareness
Consciously try to take in as much of your surroundings as possible without moving your eyes, even during daily activities. This helps open up your periphery and can pull you out of a fight-or-flight state.
3. Take Walks for Visual De-stress
Engage in regular walks to de-stress your visual system and improve eye coordination. The natural movement and changing environment help create optic flow, which is beneficial for your eyes.
4. Prioritize Reading Physical Books
Choose physical books over screens for reading when possible, as the tactile experience and fixed format support more accurate and less strenuous eye movements. This reduces visual stress compared to screen reading.
5. Prepare Eyes Before Screens
Perform eye stretches before engaging in screen-heavy activities like Zoom calls to open up your visual system and reduce the likelihood of tension and fatigue.
5 Key Quotes
Your eyes are part of your brain. They emerge in the first trimester from the brain. They're only part of your brain you can see without things getting messy.
Dr. Bryce Appelbaum
The human visual system under stress, when the autonomic nervous system is in that fight-or-flight response, our pupils widen, and we lock in with this tunnel vision.
Dr. Bryce Appelbaum
Evolutionarily, vision is intended to guide movement.
Dr. Bryce Appelbaum
Tension over time is not what you want for muscles of your body, especially your, your eye muscles, because that is what causes eye strain and fatigue and headaches and light sensitivity and your visual system.
Dr. Bryce Appelbaum
Any brain at any age has the neuroplastic ability to rewire itself with the right work, with the right motivation, with the right compliance, so that this is possible and doable for anybody.
Dr. Bryce Appelbaum
3 Protocols
20-20-20 Rule for Screen Breaks
Dr. Bryce Appelbaum- At least every 20 minutes of screen time, take a break.
- Look at something at least 20 feet away.
- Hold for at least 20 seconds.
- Get up and move away from the screen.
Eye Stretches
Dr. Bryce Appelbaum- Cover one eye.
- Look as far up to the ceiling as possible, hold for five seconds (without darting).
- Look down to the floor as far as possible, hold for five seconds.
- Look as far left as possible, hold for five seconds.
- Look as far right as possible, hold for five seconds.
- Look up and left diagonally, hold for five seconds.
- Look up and right diagonally, hold for five seconds.
- Look down and left diagonally, hold for five seconds.
- Look down and right diagonally, hold for five seconds.
- Repeat the entire sequence for the other eye, ensuring equal time for both.
Peripheral Pointing
Dr. Bryce Appelbaum- Cover one eye.
- Pick something straight ahead across the room and fixate on it without looking away.
- Using side vision, pick an object in your periphery without moving your eye to it.
- Point to where you think the peripheral object is.
- Make an eye movement to see how close your point was to the object.
- If off, try again; if accurate, choose an object farther out in the periphery.
- Practice pointing to the left, right, up, and down in your periphery.
- Repeat the entire sequence for the other eye.