How does making "Chinese eyes" sharpen your vision slightly?

Question

Forgive the phrase but it was the best way I could put it, and don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about. You know when you pull the skin back on the sides of your eyes your vision gets crisper, how the h**l does that happen?

Answer 1

Um, when I do that, it blurs my vision.

Answer 2

There may be a little more to it than that.

I believe that you may be shortening your eyeball and sharpening up your vision.

Answer 3

Yagman is correct - but the reason it appears crisper is because by blocking some of your pupil, you are limiting the amount of light rays entering.  By decreasing the size, light rays coming in straight are more likely to enter than the ones that were coming in at angles.  These "straighter" rays of light provide the cripser/sharper image.  The same thing happens if you form a small hole with your fist and look through it.

Answer 4

Well I guess you see less and you just focus on the part you can see.

Answer 5

Like when you squint your eyes? Maybe because it focuses the pupil?

I agree with Ariel D, when I do what you do, it blurs my vision. Only by squinting does it feel like my vision has improved.

Answer 6

yeah when i dont have my contacts or glasses on

Answer 7

When you make "Chinese eyes" you are artificially decreasing your pupil size by covering some of the bottom and some of the top portion of your pupils.  Anytime a person with a small to moderate amount of prescription error can decrease their pupil size, then vision will appear to be somewhat clearer.  The reason some of your answerers said it did not improve their vision is probably because they have no prescription error in the first place.  Even though this technique can improve clarity it also will induce distortion by misshaping the cornea.  So if you are seeing fine in the first place you will probably only see a decrease in vision due to distortion since no vision blurring is occuring in the first place.

EDIT:  I don't think I would worry about your eyes going bad.  Relatively quickly after you stop misshaping your cornea it will return to its normal shape.  And john e is also correct.  Pulling on the lids will flatten the curvature of your eye temporarily and artificially decrease any nearsightedness you may have.  So it is probably a combination of both.