Snellen Chart Practice, part 1

Don’t practice struggle.  

If there is only one thing I want anyone to remember, it is that.  When looking at a Snellen chart or anything else, don’t practice struggling to see.  If you can’t see something, and you get frustrated and keep trying harder to see it, and still can’t see it and get more frustrated, that is practicing struggle.  So what can you do instead?  That is exactly what you learn when practicing with a Snellen chart.  You practice doing other things (which I’ll detail in these articles), and you just pay attention to which of them improve your vision.  And the ones that help you to see better, you do more often.  And if you do something that makes you see worse, you don’t do it again.  And you learn to let go of the feeling of struggling to see and replace it consciously with a calmer feeling.

I have written a page about what the Snellen chart is and how to get one, and at the end of this article I have written some alternatives you can use if the Snellen chart itself is boring or a pessimum for you.  This is the first of three articles on using the Snellen chart to improve vision.  It is for beginners, but also to remind people with more experience how to relax with Snellen chart practice.  The second and third parts will detail more specific practice methods for vision improvement.

When you first start using a Snellen chart, the first thing to do is to get used to looking at it.  

Spend a week doing the following:  just look at the chart without glasses or contacts and note what you can see at different times of the day, for different lighting conditions, and from different distances.  Don’t try to see a new line each time, or to improve the vision.  The purpose is to just see what you can see.  You will undoubtedly find that on some days or times your vision is better, and other days it is worse.  This is referred to as variability in visual acuity.  It is important to recognize that this variability is normal both for people with normal sight as well as those with blurred vision.  It is not always obvious, so people with normal sight may not notice the variation unless their attention is called to it.  My husband with perfect sight, for example, knows that when he is tired his visual acuity is worse, but it doesn’t bother him and he doesn’t think about it, because he knows that this is normal and that clarity returns after some rest.  

You will also notice that some lighting conditions help and others don’t.  You may also find that once you have memorized the chart it becomes easier to see it.  When first introduced to the Bates method, people think this means that using a familiar Snellen chart is cheating.  This misses two points.  First, it is normal to see things better that we know well.  Second, the purpose of the Snellen chart is to practice the Bates methods, not to test the vision.  So memorize the chart, and the sooner the better.  It will make your practice with it easier.  Also, once you’ve memorized it and used it, you will have a very good idea of what you can and can’t see on it.  So if after that point you can then read another line of letters, that is true progress.

Make detailed observations and you will never get bored with the Snellen chart. 

How dark do the smaller letters look compared to the larger letters?  Can you see the white space between the letters or between the lines of letters?  Do not force yourself to either see the letters or not see them.  Can you see the curvature of the letters?  It might help to write your observations down for future reference.  

Again, remember, you are observing, not testing.  See how you feel when you make these observations at different distances, you may be surprised to find that you are more relaxed at certain distances.  Listen to these instincts.  Don’t expect improvement at this stage.  You are simply practicing your ability to be aware of what you are seeing in front of you and how you feel.

It is beneficial to palm before and after Snellen chart practice.  Start making it a routine to palm, then spend some time making detailed observations of what you can read on the chart.  Then palm again.  If you don’t have time for both, then prefer palming afterwards.  

I haven’t mentioned how long to look at the chart on purpose.  Remember the first thing I wrote:  don’t practice struggle.  As soon as you are bored, anxious, uncomfortable, or stressed, then stop and palm.  Make this a habit because it will be even more important when you are doing more specific practices with the chart.  Practice looking with interest and making observations of details.  Don’t practice struggle.

Alternatives to a Snellen chart

Some people just don’t like the chart or associate it negatively with the eye doctor’s office.  That is ok, then use anything else with clear high contrast details of various sizes (like a calendar or a photo you have a positive association with).  The main points are to have different sizes of details to look at, and to have colors which are still going to be distinct even when things blur out.  Here are some examples and what to look out for:

Calendars:  the best ones are the wall ones you probably get for Christmas each year.  There is a nice pleasing photo on top that will change every month, and the text below is all different sizes.  For example, mine shows the Month and year in the largest size letters.  Below, the month is written again in other languages but slightly smaller.  Then the days of the week are written even smaller.  The numbers of each day are quite large, and then in the lower corner there is very small text showing the previous and next months.  Keep in mind you may need to practice quite close to the calendar (1 to 5 feet) but it is a very useful tool with so much variation in text sizes, as well as having a nice photo on top.

Alternative Snellen chart:  It is possible to make a Snellen chart of objects you know a lot about.  So instead of letters, use something else in different sizes.  For architects or designers, you may find this chart interesting:  feedproxy.google.com/~r/ArchDaily/~3/Yh1BqR6R9mg/    You can identify the chair instead of a letter!  Of course, for people like me who can’t identify these chairs, this obviously wouldn’t be a good chart because I would struggle to describe the chair.  It’s a lot easier for me to recognize a letter B than to say, oh that’s an Aeron chair.  But that’s the point!  Choose something you’re interested in and go wild.

Basketball fans might like this one:  http://datavis.tumblr.com/post/4496835837/nba-champions-snellen-chart

Business men might like:  http://www.thereformedbroker.com/2010/12/06/snellen-chart-fortune-45-logos/

As you can see, it is easy to build a Snellen chart from anything you are interested in:  team/business logos, designs (not just chairs, you could do planes, classic car profiles, locomotives, animals).  do an image search on Google for ‘animal eye chart’, ‘dog eye chart’ ‘sci fi eye chart’ ‘herman snellen codified chart’ to get some interesting ideas.  

I thought this was pretty funny:  http://www.richmondproducts.com/shop/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=1124

Photos can work as well if you use them close up.  I would also suggest using a large painting or print in your house.  It’s harder to give examples here since it depends on personal preference.  Go for something you like (obviously), but also keep in mind the possibilities for practice are more if there are a range of details and sizes of details to look for.  Here’s an example:  http://www.googleartproject.com/museums/vangogh/the-bedroom  There are different sized objects, and Van Gogh’s painting technique adds interesting variation at the small scale.  From further distances you could practice looking at the features of the bed and chair, from medium distances look at details on the pictures on the wall and at close range you could analyze his painting strokes and the slighter variations in color.

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