BLINKING: How does one improve their blinking habits? What do "you" do?

[Daniel2]

Would simply closing the eyes for 5 seconds in between each exercise constitute an full blink or is the squeezing really necessary for it?
Because for example, when I use the computer, do I simply need to open and close or that wouldn't be sufficient for a full blink and I'd need to actually squeeze everytime?
Probably a dumb question but I'd appreciate anyone that knows this stuff.

[justbob]

Yes, I can see how you would arrive at that conclusion from reading his notes on the site. My understanding, which he did a poor job of explaining, is that if you use the heavy muscles all the time it results in too many partial blinks. The goal of the exercises is to train you to use the light muscles, which is what we all did before we acquired bad habits, and also to strengthen them. As long as you close your eyes slowly, once you feel the lids meet you can squeeze a little harder if you want to, just not too hard. hope that helps.

Sort of, but I've got an area on my eyelid where the oil feels thicker and I have to blink hard to get it to come out, which is developing a bad habit?

[Nightbird]

Seems like the intention there is lighter blinking which is not what we want?

Hi Bob,

Yes, I can see how you would arrive at that conclusion from reading his notes on the site. My understanding, which he did a poor job of explaining, is that if you use the heavy muscles all the time it results in too many partial blinks. The goal of the exercises is to train you to use the light muscles, which is what we all did before we acquired bad habits, and also to strengthen them. As long as you close your eyes slowly, once you feel the lids meet you can squeeze a little harder if you want to, just not too hard. hope that helps.

[Phillips55]

Yes I had Prokera in both eyes and the results have been miraculous. It's a pain to keep them in for a week and so if i ever do it again I would look into more traditional AMT's that doesn't cause as much irritation and cover more of the eye than Prokera does.

[JJdryeye]

Decreased corneal sensation can often lead to blinking less. If you have worn contacts for awhile or have had other eye problems or refractive surgery your ocular surface may be bad shape, and it's not something a regular eye exam can detect because the microscopes they use aren't powerful enough to see the nerve endings in the corneas. I wore contacts practically 24/7 for years and then I had Lasik, and after that my corneal reflex was so bad my doctor could drag a q-tip across the surface of my eyes and I wouldn't even blink because I couldn't feel it.

A doctor told me a Prokera lens treatment can help with the very problem you are describing,and actually improve one's blinking.

[Phillips55]

Decreased corneal sensation can often lead to blinking less. If you have worn contacts for awhile or have had other eye problems or refractive surgery your ocular surface may be bad shape, and it's not something a regular eye exam can detect because the microscopes they use aren't powerful enough to see the nerve endings in the corneas. I wore contacts practically 24/7 for years and then I had Lasik, and after that my corneal reflex was so bad my doctor could drag a q-tip across the surface of my eyes and I wouldn't even blink because I couldn't feel it.

[justbob]

Here are specific instructions for blink exercises:
http://www.andrewgasson.co.uk/info_blinking.htm

Seems like the intention there is lighter blinking which is not what we want?

[JJdryeye]

Well it's been a couple of weeks now since I started trying to blink more at work and I have to say it's been a real struggle to improve my blink rate. I use a program on my computer at work called EyesRelax. You can set intervals to have it come up on your screen and remind you to stop and do blinking excersizes. The problem is it's so easy to blow it off when I get really busy. It doesn't seem like that big of a deal to stop and blink 6 times every 30 minutes, but it really distracts me. I was thinking of trying a different program that would allow me to set the interval to every 5 seconds, so I would just have to blink once each time. Anyone know of a program that allows you to set 5 second intervals?

I've been doing a lot of reading online and came across some glasses developed by a company in Japan (Masunaga Optical) called Wink glasses that actually sense your blinks and fog up if you go more than 5 seconds without blinking. Has anyone tried these? When they first came out in 2009 they looked pretty basic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCLCQ4x7Ys4

But the more recent models the fogging mechanism seems to be built into the glasses:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCvyZnO996A

I read that you can order these with an Rx. I'm going to contact the company this week and find out how to order some since I can't seem to find anything on their website. But I'm kind of excited about this because unlike all those computer programs, this really looks like something that could change my blink rate. And I really want to train myself to have a normal subconscious blink rate before dropping a big chunk of money on something like Lipiflow, manual expression or probing.

[woodart]

With the amount of things wrong with my eyes it's hard to say but put them all together and it helps. Have Bleph, MG also. I am pretty stubborn with staying with things to get relief. I am sure like many here I have often wanted to remove my eyes from my head and desperate for anything that helps. I have no muscles to close my eyes and have to use my forehead, also have slings in my eyelids to hold them open which I had done 55 years ago. And sorry I had ever done that as my problems mushroomed after that. At the time we didn't have all these apps for phones so had to do a little old fashioned thinking.

[JJdryeye]

Have you ever had a lipiview test done? They are not very expensive, and test the quality of your oil, but also your blinking. You could have issues with partial blinking which is detrimental for your meibomian glands because they are not getting expressed as often as they should. Blinking exercises helped me improve a in that aspect.

I feel the same, its hard to make an involuntary process like blinking and making it voluntary. The app I mentioned above uses a quick ding or a quick vibrate, so if you wanted to you could set it to go off every 5 minutes and do a few hard blinks. I have mine set on 20 minutes, then do 10 blinking exercise. A lot of time I dont hear it go off, but because of the constant repetition, many times I remember and look at my phone and see I had a missed reminder. So Im hoping that the more I do it the more it will become ingrained in my brain and I can do even without the reminders.

I've been considering Lipiview for that reason. I'll check out that app, thanks for the tips.

[JJdryeye]

You can teach yourself to blink. I have been told by experts that you cannot. I had to teach myself to blink because of a birth defect. Since it was over 50 years ago I used my metronome and just stayed with it every day until it became a habit. Not saying it will work for you but that's how I overcame it. During one of my exams the doc called in a bunch of people to show off how I could blink. Embarrasing at the time. But having dry eyes makes one desperate and maybe that's why I stayed stubborn to get relief. I still have to think of it today as I can still forget from time to time.

That's an interesting idea, never thought of that. How much has your blinking helped your dry eye symptoms?

[woodart]

You can teach yourself to blink. I have been told by experts that you cannot. I had to teach myself to blink because of a birth defect. Since it was over 50 years ago I used my metronome and just stayed with it every day until it became a habit. Not saying it will work for you but that's how I overcame it. During one of my exams the doc called in a bunch of people to show off how I could blink. Embarrasing at the time. But having dry eyes makes one desperate and maybe that's why I stayed stubborn to get relief. I still have to think of it today as I can still forget from time to time.

[MGD30]

I've been told by most ophthalmologists that I need to improve my blinking habits and I typically didn't take it all that seriously until recently seeing one of the more prominent and well respected dry eye specialists who is really driving home that point with me, that it must be addressed and must be a huge part of my approach. I work a 40+ hour week in front of the computer, so it's a huge challenge for me, and I really wanted to see what methods have helped you guys, my fellow dry eye sufferers.

Specifically, what approach do you take, either by your own design or from a doctor that has helped you? I know there are some computer programs and blinkers that help remind you, but I was looking for anything specific that I might be able to try.

The problem I have at work is reminding myself to do it without it become a major distraction from my job.

I'd really appreciate it if some of you could weigh in and add anything that you think might be useful, I'm open to trying anything. Thanks!

Have you ever had a lipiview test done? They are not very expensive, and test the quality of your oil, but also your blinking. You could have issues with partial blinking which is detrimental for your meibomian glands because they are not getting expressed as often as they should. Blinking exercises helped me improve a in that aspect.

I feel the same, its hard to make an involuntary process like blinking and making it voluntary. The app I mentioned above uses a quick ding or a quick vibrate, so if you wanted to you could set it to go off every 5 minutes and do a few hard blinks. I have mine set on 20 minutes, then do 10 blinking exercise. A lot of time I dont hear it go off, but because of the constant repetition, many times I remember and look at my phone and see I had a missed reminder. So Im hoping that the more I do it the more it will become ingrained in my brain and I can do even without the reminders.

[MGD30]

Good to know. It has bothered me for a while that the TS app can't be customized and that you have to reset it every 30 days. Do you know if it will work on an Apple computer? I found it on my phone but when I searched for 'Stand Up' in my computer's app store all that came up was a list of games.

I didn't even know you could get mobile apps on your computer, so I'm not sure; although there are a lot of other customizable programs available on the computer. Some even darken your screen so you dont ignore it.

[Nightbird]

I used the TearScience app at first too but it was unreliable and not at all customizable. I like "Stand Up!" better, you can pick the time intervals that you you want and also the days. Its on Iphone not sure about android.

Good to know. It has bothered me for a while that the TS app can't be customized and that you have to reset it every 30 days. Do you know if it will work on an Apple computer? I found it on my phone but when I searched for 'Stand Up' in my computer's app store all that came up was a list of games.