Can’t focus on your cell phone after a concussion??

Blurred vision and difficulty focusing are common after a concussion. This occurs especially when looking at closer objects, like looking at a cell phone or a computer screen. Sometimes patients get double vision or headaches with it.

Normally, our eyes have to come together and converge to focus on something close by. This requires six eye muscles on each eye coordinating together in order to achieve that. This coordination is often lost in a concussion causing convergence insufficiency.

How do we treat this?

Convergence insufficiency improves in a few weeks and returns to normal in most cases.

There are some convergence exercises patients can do at home like - pencil push-ups exercises.

In these exercises - Patient needs to hold a pencil at arms length in the front and center of their vision and bring it closer to the nose as long as they only see a single image. Hold for 5 seconds. Then push it back away and repeat. You can do this 5-10 times in a session and repeat these sessions several times a day.

Optometrists can help with more advanced convergence exercises.