It’s been over a year since I seriously tried to use pinhole glasses, and abandoned the idea. I wrote about that here. Now after 2 or 3 days of experimenting with wearing prescription glasses at the computer again and not liking them much, which I wrote about here, I’m looking into pinholes once more.
Many of the drawbacks to pinholes for me are only because I want to rush! Wearing them at the computer, I need to read more slowly, and move my gaze a little more deliberately. If I jerk my gaze all over the place I lose track of the cursor. Also, if I try to hurry and gobble the sentences I’m reading, barely tasting them, the tiny specks in my vitreous fluid start sloshing around and interfere with what I’m looking at. It’s obvious I’m darting my eyes back and forth too quickly, not fully seeing what’s in front of them. I’m grateful for this feedback, since I don’t see this effect without the pinholes, when those little specks just blend into my slight blur.
In addition to gently “forcing” me to slow down, a big disadvantage of the pinholes in the past was that they fell off or slid down my nose very easily, since my head and face are smaller than the normal adult. The “correction” (none!) is the same in every part of the lens, so looking out of the upper part rather than the middle part is not a problem at all, unlike with prescription glasses. It’s just that I want them to stay in place, and if I leaned forward even a few degrees they fell off completely.
OK, one problem solved. This pair of pinholes is even too big for my six foot tall guy! He gave me an eyeglasses holder cord to attach to each arm of the frame, which I adjusted to fit my head perfectly. The pinholes now stay in the same position on my face without moving, and I can slide them on top of my head whenever I want, then put them back down on my face. These could actually be useful if I’m not fighting them!
I’ve been using these for a few hours at the computer, on and off, practicing getting familiar with them. Of course I can’t use them for driving. About the only drawback so far seems to be the need to read and write more slowly. There are many advantages over prescription glasses.
– The biggest plus is no eyestrain! No ache in my temples or my skull, no ache-y eyeballs from struggling to see through the lens. Seeing clearly does not have to be painful. Wow!
– Since the “lens” is opaque black plastic and many little holes, when I see through these I am only looking at the air around me. There is no barrier between the visual data coming in and my eyes. This is major and I can feel it. Even though I’m behind what might look like weird sunglasses, I don’t feel cut off from the world like I do when I have glasses on
– Since there’s no lens, there’s nothing to smear or get dirty or get rained on or fogged. They don’t need to constantly be cleaned! If I’m going to wear something to help me see, I don’t want it to hinder my vision!
– Being a dedicated vision improvement student, fully committed to ongoing progress, I know the pinholes are not setting me back the way wearing prescription lenses might be, or teaching my brain and my eyes to see in an artificial way.
– As with glasses, when I wear pinholes at the computer I don’t have to lean in to see or sit close to the screen, losing awareness of my periphery with the monitor becoming my whole world. My partner pointed out that I am sitting back farther with the pinholes than I was with eyeglasses!
So for now I’ll be using the pinholes intermittently at the computer, continuing to experiment. It’s a thrill to see clearly without any strain or fatigue. I think my visual system remaining in a relaxed state for longer periods of time will prove to be a big help to my vision improving, to seeing more clearly whether I’m at the computer or not. Clear sight is supposed to be natural, easy, and enjoyable.
DreamerSight 
I have a kid’s size for my daughter. It’s a little small for me. I got it from ebay many years ago, yellow color.
Lou,
Thanks –I thought of this too and was going to pursue it next if the strap didn’t work. I’m pretty sure Peter Grunwald, whom I bought these from, had a child’s size too. Thank you! I am so thrilled there is no eyestrain with these, you have no idea.
Nancy
Nancy, do you have any insight on where to order pinholes from? As I’ve looked, a lot of reviews say the holes are incorrectly spaced, and in the pair I ordered, the image through each hole appears to be aligned differently–kind of like when you look at the edge of a glass and see the object twice.
Also, thanks for your posts. I read your blog regularly, and you are able to explain concepts really well.
Janene, thanks for commenting. I got my pinholes from Peter Grunwald when I took a week long workshop with him a few years ago. He gives you an accompanying CD explaining in detail how to use them. He did say many of the cheaper ones have the holes spaced too close, so you over-converge, or too big so you under-focus, that he spent a lot of time getting the spacing just right. Here’s his website: http://www.eyebody.com/ with the next to the last short paragraph on this top page being on pinhole glasses. I still like nothing on my face at all, and am tempted to lean in at the computer rather than using the pinholes, but they feel way better than prescription glasses do, to me. Hope that helps.