Why does my vision become sharper when I cross my eyes?

Regarding the second part of your question, the muscles involved in crossing your eyes don’t have anything to do with the age-related inability to focus on near objects. That’s caused by a loss of flexibility in the lens of the eye. The eye changes its focal length by changing the shape of this rubbery lens of clear tissue. With age it becomes less flexible, and so it loses the ability to bring near objects into focus.

Muscles internal to the eyeball do the work of changing the lens, but it’s muscles external to the eyeball that cross the eyes. You do have to do that to look at close objects, but that’s not the particular ability that gets lost as we age.

Can’t help with the first part of the Q. I don’t seem to experience the same thing.

You got some strange eyes there. And yes, I want to see you do it. I’m in need of a good laugh.

Because you’re a bassackwards twit, you darling, darling girl! <3

ROFL!! OK @Adirondackwannabe! Are you looking?

Nina! Your thong is on upside down….

But seriously you guys…you don’t notice your vision sharpening?????

Pffft, it is not. I’m not wearing one today, so there!

@Dutchess_III LMAO. Thanks. I tried it a couple of times and all I get is two crappy images.

@WillWorkForThongs…that’s even grosser!!!

Well….you guys! Um…from about 4th grade on I was blessed with really, REALLY bad vision. Had to change my script every six months until high school, when I got contacts. I noticed it then, too. I’ve had lasik, so it’s all good, but my vision is still sharper when I cross my eyes. Maybe I just notice it because my vision has been a major part of my life all of my life…I also notice that when I look down through clear water, like at a pool, I could see perfectly…except everything was distorted and wavy, of course. But other than that nothing was blurred.

My eyes hurt

Geez, you prude! I just adore you!!!

Water acts as a refractor and changes your RX for free. Of course, reading underwater is a challenge.

When my son was two his left eye crossed and wouldn’t become uncrossed. We rushed him to the doctor and she had us rush him to a child ophthalmologist. It turned out that his vision had been bad, bad, bad for years, perhaps since birth. His left eye strained inwards in order to try to correct his vision so, I am guessing that crossing that eye made it easier for him to see out of it.

The poor kid had to wear an eye patch for 3 years in an effort to retrain that eye not to cross. He’s vision was +5.75 in one eye and +5.5 in the other.

Maybe it’s because you are straining them.

It could be because you’re changing the shape of your eyeball. My friend can make his vision better by pulling the outside corners of his eyes back, which (we suppose) slightly flattens his eyeballs, changing the focus. Maybe it’s a similar situation when you cross yours?

Stretching the skin helps my vision too…..well, all I can say it, thank goodness for glasses or no one would come near me!!! I’d be pulling my skin, crossing my eyes, trying to look at them through a glass of water! Me thinks I might not even be able to get a job!

I know this thread is a decade old but… I experience the same thing. With a little research, I found a chart from Dr. Ray Gottlieb, an O.D./Ph.D in Rochester NY.

I’m 44 years old and on the edge of presbyopia… If I relax and slightly cross my eyes, they begin to focus slowly until I can see close text in complete focus. I use a chart that’s available on his website to practice it… Google him… Chart is just a PDF download.

As for the science of WHY: 1. Either eye docs don’t know, or 2. Why educate people to improve accommodation when you can make money selling bifocals? Who knows.