Here's some passages regarding the topic of sleep from the Better
Eyesight Magazine:
[...Question - If closing and resting the eyes is beneficial why won't
sleep cure defective vision?
Answer - Sleep is hard on the eyes because most people strain their
eyes more when they are asleep than when they are awake...]
- June, 1924
[...Q. Better Eyesight advises sleeping on the back. Will you kindly
give me explicit directions as to how to do this?
A. In lying on your back the arms should be parallel with the body and
the lower limbs completely extended. The height of the pillow is
immaterial. The head may or may not be turned to one side. It is a
good thing to go to sleep swinging or palming...]
- November, 1921
[...There was some discussion about eye strain during sleep. Many
people suffer very much from headache and imperfect sight on first
rising in the morning and the symptoms may continue for several hours.
A gentleman present related his experience. He obtained much benefit
by rising at 4 a.m. with the aid of an alarm clock, when he would
practise the "Long Swing" until relieved. He would then retire, sleep
the rest of the night and on rising find the eye strain much less or
absent altogether...]
- December, 1922
[...During sleep the refractive condition of the eye is rarely, if
ever, normal. Persons whose refraction is normal when they are awake
will produce myopia, hypermetropia and astigmatism when they are
asleep, or, if they have errors of refraction when they are awake,
they will be Increased during sleep. This is why people waken in the
morning with eyes more tired than at any other time, or even with
severe headaches. When the subject is under ether or chloroform. or
unconscious from any other cause, errors of refraction are also
produced or increased...]
- The Variability of the Refraction of the Eye, January 1920
[...Eyestrain During Sleep
Many people complain that when they awaken in the morning, they are
suffering from pain in their eyes or head. They often feel as weary as
though they had been working hard all night long. Many of them do not
recover from the pain and fatigue until after they have been up for an
hour or longer. Their vision also may be found to be reduced to a very
considerable degree. Some complain that they see illusions which are
occasionally very slow in disappearing. One patient complained that
the tiled floor of a bath room had a very strange appearance; although
the tiles were white, to him they appeared blue and red alternately. A
feeling of strain was always present and did not subside until the
illusion had disappeared. It seemed as though the eyes were under a
strain during sleep, because when the eyes were examined with the
ophthalmoscope while the patient was asleep, a strain could readily be
observed.
Sometimes, as in the case of many children, other parts of the body
may be under a strain during sleep. By an unconscious effort, the
muscles of the face, arms and limbs may be distorted as may be muscles
of different parts of the eyeball. In some cases, the strain produces
accommodation or myopia, while in other cases, hypermetropia or
astigmatism are produced by this unconscious effort. These eyes
frequently were found to be normal during the day.
The treatment to prevent eyestrain during sleep is not always
successful. Some patients obtain most relief by practicing the long
swing one hundred times or more just before retiring and the same
number of times in the morning immediately after awakening. Other
patients find that palming for twenty minutes before retiring is a
help, and frequently the palms are left in place with benefit after
the patients have lost consciousness...]
- January, 1928
[...Sleepiness and Eyestrain, By W. H. Bates, M.D.
How much sleep is necessary to maintain health? This is a question
which has never been satisfactorily answered. Theoretically, mental or
physical work should increase the need for sleep, but it is a matter
of common knowledge that many inactive persons seem to need just as
much sleep as those who work, or even more.
Much time has been devoted to the investigation of the symptoms of
fatigue. Analyses have been made of the blood of fatigued subjects;
the action of the muscles. nerves and brain, the changes in the
structure of the cells, under the influence of fatigue, the changes
following sleep, have all been carefully studied. But so far very
little light has been thrown upon the nature of either fatigue or
sleep.
This is a fact, however: that eyestrain has always been demonstrated
when fatigue was present, and that fatigue has always been relieved
when eyestrain was relieved. Perfect sight is perfect rest, and cannot
coexist with fatigue. Even the memory or imagination of fatigue is
accompanied by the production of eyestrain and imperfect sight, while
the memory of perfect sight will relieve both eyestrain and fatigue.
Sleepiness is a common symptom of habitual eyestrain, and when the
sight improves the need for sleep is often markedly reduced.
One patient reports that after gaining normal sight without glasses
she was able to get on comfortably with seven hours sleep, whereas she
had formerly not been able to avoid continual sleepiness and yawning
even on nine and ten hours. The inclination to yawn on all occasions
had been so overpowering, she stated, that it often subjected her to
great embarrassment. On one occasion she yawned so incessantly during
a call made in the early evening that the visitor concluded, not
unnaturally, that her presence was a burden and departed in high
dudgeon, no explanations sufficing to convince her that the yawning
was not the result of boredom. The patient was made very unhappy by
this condition, but finally became reconciled to it in a measure,
thinking that what could not be cured must be endured. Great was her
surprise and delight, therefore, when, after discarding her glasses
and beginning to practice central fixation, she found herself sleeping
less and not yawning so much. She made no conscious effort, she said,
to check the yawning, and had indeed almost forgotten about it. She
now gets sleepy only at bedtime.
Another patient, although he never had any desire to sleep in the
daytime, found it very difficult to keep awake in the evening. At the
opera or theatre, at lectures and social gatherings, and at church, he
was always sleepy and often went to sleep. It was naturally more
difficult for him to keep awake when he was not interested, but
whether he was interested or not he was sure to become more or less
sleepy. He never went to a lecture without going to sleep, and the
world's most famous song-birds were not always able to keep him awake
at the opera. In the case of dull papers or sermons, it did no good to
think of something else, for the sound of the speaker's voice acted
like an opiate. When he learned how to relax by the aid of the memory,
imagination, shifting, swinging and palming, the trouble gradually
became less, and now he can stay awake at all times and in all places
where people are supposed to stay awake...]
- September, 1920