“Are you awake?” I have a distant memory of these words, and of my son’s bed-warm face close to mine, examining my eyes and seeking connection…. We know from a very young age that when we are awake our eyes are open and we see the world around us. Remember how when you were a child you screwed your eyes shut when your parent came to check that you were going to sleep?
In a sense we can say that our eyes are a doorway to the waking world – and conversely, to the world of sleep. When we rest or sleep we close this doorway with our eyelids.
The visual sense is one that we use often without much thought. However, more and more studies are showing how our eyes, our sight (the sense that is mostly directly connected to our brain) has a profound effect on our overall health and well-being. “The eyes are the only part of the central nervous system exposed to the outside world”, points out Victoria Dunckley, MD in her book “Reset your Child’s Brain”. So the eye is a “live nerve” – what touches it, what stimulus it receives is not at all filtered, but is directly received by us. Think how this is for the very young child. What kind of visual environment is condusive to healthly development?
Take the light we see. Natural light, especially at dawn and dusk is now proven to be a balancer of hormones, bringing health to the balance of our physiology. Throughout the day the light of the sun changes, working in harmony with the human rhythms of waking during the day and sleeping at night. “Our body is meant to be in the sun, and exposure to sunlight during the day is crucial to your wellbeing. In addition to producing Vitamin D, which is an essential ingredient for overall health, sunlight also sets your circadian rhythm by regulating the levels of serotonin and melatonin produced by your brain. People who don’t get enough sunlight have altered immune defense mechanisms that predispose them to excessive inflammation, which can result in autoimmune disease.” (From Dr Courtney Hunt’s website, MD, FACOG) The light is received through the eye and this stimulus is communicated with the pineal gland, whose function is primarily to regulate sleep-wake cycles.
As we have the possibility of lighting our homes and spaces with artificial light, we can ask how does that effect us. When we receive LED light through the doorway of the eye, how does this effect our bodies and our healthy? How about electromagnetic waves? Blue light? Victoria Dunckley, MD has compiled much research about this in her book “Reset your Child’s Brain”, examining the use of light-emitting screens on children and adolescents. To summarise, the use of screens effects our body clocks, melatonin production, effects sleep and hormones, increases inflammation, dysregulates serotonin and can cause inflammation of the retina.
Not only do we need natural sunlight in order to be healthy we also need darkness. Darkness … remember as a child lying in darkness? How the darkness was filled with possibilities – some comforting, some perhaps scary. Giving our eyes and our sense of sight the restful experience of darkness is healing and healthy. Dr Bates (Better sight without Glasses) introduced his technique of resting the eye through “palming” – resting the hands over the eyes and blocking the light. This is an easy and effective way to maintain good eye health. (For a full description of this method see https://tedmaser.com/batesmethodeyeexercises.) In Spacial Dynamics® this technique has been extended to include practice of different ways of seeing – one way to see is to look out from your eye into the space, as if projecting oneself. Another way is to allow oneself to be drawn through one’s own interest by something in the world. This is a movement, an activity. You send yourself to the object and this becomes an invitation for your sight to follow this pathway. An extension of this new way of seeing is that with the draw one can open the visual sense and receive at the same time. It “softens” the gaze and increases consciousness. Using this technique one finds one suddenly notices things that you hadn’t seen before, an enhancement of conscious seeing.
This takes us back to our theme of sleep and wakefulness. The eye is not only a doorway to the world but plays an important role in the rhythm of night and day. Screens and artificial light disrupt our body’s ability to regulate and maintain a healthy rhythm.
What our eyes see during the day has a profound effect on our central nervous system and on our overall health. In Waldorf education consideration is given to the content and quality of what children encounter through the visual sense. Rudolf Steiner believed that not only are we nourished by the food we eat, but we are also nourished by the sensory impressions we receive.
What our eyes “see” during the dark hours of the night can enhance our taking of rest, and our ability to enter the night world of sleep that is a world of process and possibility. When we do this well, when we have a good night’s sleep, we are rejuvenated. Healing can take place. We can also receive the inspiring nourishment of the spiritual world. Rudolf Steiner suggests that not only can we prepare ourselves to enter the night-world by reviewing our day, he also recommended that one can receive inspiration and guidance in the threshold of waking. So waking can be a bridge between the spiritual world and our everyday self; a time of dreaming and opening to what you have received during the night.
