The #1 Reason You Get Astigmatism And How To Reverse It

If you’ve been told that astigmatism is genetic, permanent, and requires glasses or surgery for life, what I’m about to share will change how you see your vision diagnosis. When I logged over 1,000 patient eye exams as an optician, I started noticing something remarkable: there was a clear connection between new postural habits and the development or worsening of astigmatism.

But it wasn’t until I discovered optometrist Dr. Elliott Forrest’s groundbreaking research that everything clicked into place. Dr. Forrest proved that most cases of astigmatism are functional, not genetic. And here’s the part that matters most: it takes only 4 months of specific head and eye movement patterns to develop astigmatism. The good news? Dr. Forrest also proved that “a reduction of astigmatism is feasible at any age and within reasonable periods of time, regardless of the corrective prescription worn.”

Today, I’m going to walk you through exactly what creates astigmatism, the research that proves it’s reversible, and the specific strategies you can use to address both the physical and emotional roots of your astigmatic vision.

What Is Astigmatism, Really?

Astigmatism accounts for about 13% of all refractive errors (that’s the professional term for nearsightedness, farsightedness, and astigmatism). Most cases of astigmatism are related to the cornea, which is the clear dome at the front of your eye. Instead of being perfectly round like a basketball, the cornea has an irregular shape, more like an American football. There’s a flatter curve going from tip to tip, and a steeper curve going around the belly. Watch this episode for a detailed anatomy demo.

This uneven shape means light entering your eye doesn’t focus on a single point on your retina. Instead, it creates multiple focal points, which is why people with astigmatism often describe seeing:

• Double or triple images (especially moons or streetlights)
• Shadowy versions of letters or lines
• Some lines appearing darker and others appearing gray or fuzzy
• Blurry vision at near, middle, far distances, or all distances

In your glasses or contact lens prescription, astigmatism shows up as two numbers: the cylinder (the strength of your astigmatism measured in diopters) and the axis (the angle of the astigmatism, measured in degrees from 0 to 180).

Now here’s what your eye doctor probably didn’t tell you: the magnitude and axis of astigmatism can vary during the day. According to research published in StatPearls (NCBI 2023), “various factors influence astigmatisms, such as eyelid pressure, the tension of extraocular muscles, pupil size, and accommodation.” This means your astigmatism isn’t this fixed, unchangeable thing. It’s dynamic and responsive to what you’re doing with your eyes, head, and body throughout the day.

The Posture-Astigmatism Connection: Dr. Elliott Forrest’s Discovery

In the early 1980s, Dr. Elliott B. Forrest, a professor at the State University of New York College of Optometry, published research that would change everything we know about astigmatism. His paper, “Astigmatism as a Function of Visual Scan, Head Scan, and Head Posture,” appeared in the American Journal of Optometry and Physiological Optics in November 1980.

Dr. Forrest observed hundreds of patients over time, recording changes in their astigmatism alongside their lifestyle and work habits. What he discovered was remarkable:

Eye movements that are NOT accompanied by head movements create astigmatism in the angle of those eye movements.

The Three Components of Functional Astigmatism

Dr. Forrest identified three key factors that determine whether you develop astigmatism:

1. Visual (Eye) Scan: When your eyes move without your head moving. For example, moving your eyes side to side while reading across a computer screen, or up and down while scrolling, all with your head stationary. This is the MAJOR cause of astigmatism.

2. Head Scan: When your eyes AND head move together. This is nature’s intention and what people with naturally clear vision do automatically. Head scanning prevents astigmatism from developing.

3. Head Posture: How you hold your head in three planes:

• Head angle (chin up or down)
• Head tilt (ear toward shoulder)
• Head rotation (chin turning toward shoulder)

Here’s what makes Dr. Forrest’s work so powerful: he could predict someone’s astigmatism pattern just by knowing their daily habits. His correlation was 80% accurate. And when you combine chronic asymmetric head posture with eye movements that don’t include the head, astigmatism develops in as little as 4 months.

Reduction of astigmatism is feasible at any age and within reasonable periods of time, regardless of the corrective prescription that is worn by the individual. ~Dr. Elliott Forrest

The Orchestra Musician Study: Nearly 100% Correlation

Dr. Forrest needed a way to test his theory. He knew that musicians must remain in constrained postures for extended periods to play their instruments. We’re all familiar with the head tilt left of the violinist or the head tilt right for those who play the flute. A trombone, particularly a bass trombone, blocks left visual space, so all trombone players must look at their music to their right.

In 1996, four Norwegian researchers put Dr. Forrest’s model to the test. They studied six Norwegian symphony orchestras and examined 212 musicians with astigmatism. Their paper, “Synssituasjonen blant profesjonelle orkestermusikere” (Visual Conditions of Professional Orchestra Musicians), revealed results that stunned the optometry world.

The correlation between the instrument played, the posture required to play that instrument, and the predicted astigmatism pattern was nearly 100%.

Real Examples from the Study

Violinists: With classic head tilt left, the Baltimore Symphony violinist’s prescription showed axis 175 in both eyes, exactly as Dr. Forrest’s model predicted.

Trombone players: With music placed to their right, requiring constant rightward gaze, the left eye developed more astigmatism than the right eye, precisely matching the prediction.

Cellists and string players: Who share a music stand positioned on their right developed the exact astigmatism pattern Dr. Forrest’s model anticipated.

The study confirmed what Dr. Forrest had been saying all along: astigmatism is primarily functional, created by how we use our eyes and hold our bodies in daily life. It’s not some mysterious genetic curse. It’s a predictable response to repetitive postural and visual patterns.

The Mental and Emotional Roots of Astigmatism

Now, if astigmatism were purely mechanical, simply fixing your posture and eye movement patterns would be enough. But when I work with clients who have astigmatism, there’s almost always a deeper pattern at play.

Martin Brofman, who created the Body Mirror System, identified the core emotional pattern behind astigmatism: uncertainty of wants and feelings.

Think about what astigmatism creates visually: multiple focal points. You’re literally seeing two or three versions of the same thing. This mirrors a mental state of non-focus or multiple simultaneous focal points. The person with astigmatism is often:

• Jumping from task to task without finishing
• Experiencing racing thoughts
• Starting sentences without finishing them
• Topic-hopping in conversations
• Not living in the present moment
• Addicted to multi-tasking
• Struggling with anxiety

The Classic Astigmatism Personality

Over the years, I’ve noticed a consistent pattern among my clients with higher astigmatism (above 1.50 diopters):

• People pleasers who struggle to say no
• Course consumers who are always learning but rarely implementing
• Spreading themselves too thin across multiple projects
• Uncertain about what to choose next
• Struggling with decision-making
• Feeling pulled in multiple directions

That last one is key. Notice how “feeling pulled in multiple directions” is both a mental/emotional state AND a physical reality. When you’re constantly turning your head one way while looking another way, or moving just your eyes without your head, you’re literally being pulled in multiple directions physically.

The astigmatism in your eyes is a perfect mirror of the astigmatism in your life.

How Modern Life Creates Astigmatism

Let’s talk about your workspace for a moment. If you work at a computer, answer these questions honestly:

• Do you have dual monitors positioned to your left and right?
• Do you turn just your eyes to look at each screen, keeping your head stationary?
• Is your keyboard positioned off-center, forcing you to look down and to one side repeatedly?
• Do you hold your phone with your head tilted to one side while scrolling with just your eyes?
• Do you read in bed with your head propped at an angle?

Every single one of these habits creates the exact conditions Dr. Forrest identified as causing astigmatism. And when you do these things day after day, month after month, your cornea literally reshapes itself to accommodate these patterns.

The same thing happens with children. A child navigating parents with different beliefs and conflicting demands experiences that “pulled in multiple directions” feeling both emotionally and often physically (turning to look at one parent, then the other, without full head movement). Students managing multiple responsibilities, switching between subjects and screens, develop the same patterns.

How To Reverse Astigmatism: The Physical Approach

Now for the good news. Since astigmatism develops from specific habits, it can be reversed by changing those habits. Here’s exactly how:

Step 1: Reduce or Remove the Cylinder from Your Prescription

The approach to reducing astigmatism correction depends on how strong your cylinder is. Here’s what I recommend based on years of working with clients:

For mild astigmatism (cylinder below 1 diopter): Leave the cylinder out entirely while you practice the vision improvement habits. At this level, the correction often creates more problems than it solves, locking your eyes into a pattern they can easily learn to compensate for naturally.

For moderate astigmatism (1 to 3 diopters): Use the optometric formula of adding half the cylinder diopter to the sphere diopter to calculate your “clean diopter” prescription. This gives you a spherical equivalent that provides clarity without the cylinder correction, allowing your visual system to start adapting.

For higher astigmatism (over 3 diopters): Most people do better with a gradual cylinder reduction rather than removing it all at once. Join my 12 Week Naturally Clear Vision Mentoring Program or work with a holistic or integrative optometrist to reduce the cylinder in appropriate steps as you practice the head-eye coordination and other reversal techniques.

What To Expect When You Remove or Reduce Cylinder

When you first remove cylinder correction from your glasses, you’ll notice something interesting happens to your perception. This is completely normal and temporary as your brain recalibrates.

With 90-axis astigmatism: If you’ve been wearing minus cylinder correction, faces and objects will initially look wider or squashed. If you’ve been wearing plus cylinder, everything will look narrower or condensed.

With 0/180-axis astigmatism: Minus cylinder correction (common with nearsightedness) makes everything look narrower or condensed when removed. Plus cylinder correction (common with farsightedness) makes everything look wider or squashed when removed.

Your brain has been compensating for the distortion created by the cylinder lens. When you remove that artificial distortion, your perception needs time to normalize. Most people adjust within days to a few weeks. During this period, your brain is learning to interpret the actual shape of the world again, and your visual system is beginning to release the astigmatic pattern.

This recalibration period is a sign that the process is working. Your eyes are no longer locked into the artificial correction and can start reshaping toward their natural, balanced state.

Step 2: Practice Head-Eye Movement Coordination

This is the foundation of reversing functional astigmatism. You need to be mindful to move your head WITH your eyes, not separately. Think of moving your attention.

Step 3: Optimize Your Workspace Ergonomics

Your environment either supports natural vision or creates astigmatism. Make these changes:

• Position additional monitors directly in front of you, switching between them with full head turns
• Center your primary monitor at eye level
• Avoid any asymmetric head positions
• Check your posture with a mirror or ask someone to spot you

Step 4: Release Myofascial Tension

The tension in your face, head, neck, and shoulders contributes to the astigmatic distortion in your cornea.

Especially your neck muscles are directly connected to your eye movements through something called the Cervico-Ocular Reflex (COR). The COR works alongside your Vestibulo-Ocular Reflex (VOR) to stabilize your vision by coordinating eye and neck movements together.

When your neck is stiff or locked in poor posture (“tech neck”), your eyes have to compensate. This compensation creates constant exertion and fatigue in your extraocular muscles (the six muscles around each eyeball), which directly contributes to astigmatism and blurry vision.

The Specific Muscle Connections You Need to Know

Suboccipitals: These small muscles at the base of your skull link directly to eye movements, especially when you look up and down. Tension in the suboccipitals is directly connected to eye-strain-induced headaches.

Sternocleidomastoid (SCM): This large neck muscle has a direct connection to eye function. Dysfunction in the SCM can lead to eye tearing, drooping eyelids, and vision issues.

Trapezius: Tension in the upper trapezius restricts blood flow and nerve function to your head and eyes. Tight traps mean less oxygen and nutrients reaching your visual system.

How To Release This Tension

Release tension in your face, head, and neck, especially the SCM, trapezius, and suboccipitals. Massage your temples, jaw, and scalp daily, particularly after long periods at the computer or phone. I love the TuneUpFitness Myofascial Therapy balls for this. Here is a step by step guide.

When these muscles release, you’ll often notice improvements in visual clarity because the mechanical tension pulling on your eye structures has decreased.

Step 5: Visual Practices for Astigmatism

The Tibetan Wheel or Yogic Clocks: These circular charts with radiating spokes help you practice seeing clearly in all directions. When you look at them with one eye at a time (no glasses), you’ll notice some spokes appear darker and others appear gray or fuzzy. Practice softly gazing at the gray spokes until they come into focus. This trains your visual system to relax the astigmatic distortion.

The Shifter: This striped (printed) or slotted (available here) vision improvement tool helps loosen up all six extraocular eye muscles through dynamic movement by holding the shifter in front of your eyes and moving your head (with your eyes) left and right, then vertically and diagonally, to improve saccadic eye movements and relax all the muscles in the eyes. If you don’t notice the movement, try moving the shifter the other way. This is also a great prep for reading skill improvement.

Focus on the Real Line: When you see double or multiple images, consciously choose to focus on the real one and ignore the ghost images. This trains your brain to interpret correctly and eventually eliminate the doubling.

Blink and Breathe: Soft, frequent blinking (15-20 times per minute) keeps your tear film stable and prevents the temporary blur that comes from staring. Deep breathing relaxes your entire visual system.

How To Reverse Astigmatism: The Mental and Emotional Approach

Physical practices alone won’t create lasting change if the mental and emotional patterns remain. You need to address both simultaneously.

Step 1: Single-Task Focus with the Pomodoro Technique

Set a timer for 25 minutes and work on ONE thing only. No switching, no checking email, no multitasking. Then take a 5-minute break. This trains your mind to focus on one thing at a time, which directly counteracts the “multiple focal points” pattern of astigmatism.

Step 2: Connect With Your True Wants and Feelings

Start a daily journaling practice with these two questions:

• What do I actually want right now?
• How do I actually feel about this?

Cut through others’ expectations and external “shoulds” to find YOUR truth. The more clear you become internally, the more clear your vision becomes externally.

Step 3: Trust Your Gut and Stop Overthinking

Give yourself 2 minutes to make decisions. Notice when you’re seeking more information to avoid choosing. Practice choosing and committing. Every time you make a clear decision, you’re training yourself out of the “uncertainty of wants and feelings” that creates astigmatism.

Step 4: Bach Flower Remedies for Emotional Support

These remedies can support the emotional patterns behind astigmatism:

Scleranthus:

• For indecision, lack of inner balance
• Vacillating between two options
• Affirmation: “I am finding my own rhythm. I surrender to the flow of life.”

Walnut:

• For being knocked off course by others’ ideas
• Unsettled in times of change
• Going through major life change, pulled in different directions
• Affirmation: “I am following my own inner guidance. I am not influenced by negative forces.”

Impatiens:

• You feel impatient with the slow pace of people or things 
• You are easily irritated by constraints or people 
• You are quick, yet tense 
• You interrupt others, especially those that talk slowly
• Affirmations: “Everybody has their own speed”,  “I listen with my heart”

Elm:

• You feel [temporarily] overwhelmed by your many responsibilities and things you need to do
• You feel inadequate to handle it all even though you know you are capable
• Affirmations:  “I am only given as much work as I can handle”, “ I am supported”

Clematis:

1. You are not interested in the present moment and hope for a better future
2. You daydream and have a hard time focusing on the task in front of you 
3. You need a lot of sleep and have little energy, even in the morning  
4. You find it difficult to remember things
5. Affirmations: “My mission happens in the Here & Now” 

The Complete Astigmatism Reversal Formula

Astigmatism is primarily functional, not genetic. It develops in as little as 4 months from specific head and eye movement patterns combined with mental and emotional uncertainty. The research is clear: it can reverse at any age when you address both the physical patterns and the deeper emotional roots.

Here’s your action plan:

Physical:

1. Practice moving head with eyes (Head Scan, not Eye Scan)
2. Optimize your workspace ergonomics
3. Release myofascial tension daily
4. Use visual practices like the Tibetan Wheel
5. Gradually reduce cylinder in your prescription

Mental/Emotional:

1. Practice single-task focus with Pomodoro Technique
2. Journal daily on your true wants and feelings
3. Make decisions quickly and trust your gut
4. Consider Bach Flower Remedies (Scleranthus and Walnut)
5. Ground yourself. Try this astigmatism palming meditation

When you address astigmatism from both angles, you’re not just changing the shape of your cornea. You’re changing the entire pattern that created the distortion in the first place.

And that’s exactly what I help my students do in the Naturally Clear Vision 12-Week Program. You’ll learn the exact step-by-step instructions that address the physical posture, the ergonomics, the mental confusion, and the emotional patterns creating your astigmatic vision.

Because at the end of the day, your vision is a mirror of your life. When you bring clarity, focus, and alignment to how you move, think, and feel, your eyes have no choice but to reflect that clarity back to you.

Watch the episode of The #1 Reason You Get Astigmatism And How To Reverse It