Hi
I am also a newbie here although 38 years old. I started testing plus wearing myself about 3 weeks ago.
My refractive error is around (as it was measured long ago I do not have a proof) Left -1.50 and cyl -0.75 R -1.5 and cyl -0.25
So stronger is the right eye - and I feel it when wearing PLUS for computer. I had to do patching to allow left to also do some work.
So yes with so limited refraction error and a lot of close up work I would not be able to recover with additional tools (PLUS lenses). As eyes are fitted to my lifestyle. So even if I do not wear glasses except driving (for driving I have both -1D, and I feel they are a bit too weak sometimes) the whole situation would not improve.
I confirm that same as other people posting here I feel more acuity when taking off the PLUS (used to work with computer), then the eyes keep for some hours shorter (as I understood from Todd's slides) and at the same time more relaxed (no tension needed in ciliary muscle for the close work).
However I feel sometimes that ciliary muscle to strain for long distance to get more acuity - this is not only when I stare with my eyes to the horizon, but also when just glancing at the horizon [distance]. It is very uncomfortable feeling. So too much training for the ciliary muscle can lead to undesired results (in my opinion).
I used to do some eye exercises 18 years ago (around 3-6 months , I mean I was putting less effor at the end untill stopped completely)- then I had even more problems with this internal tension too (because I didn't know the PLUS wearing rule at that time - only the 'active focus' exercises). The other kind of exercises were turning the eyeballs around (write eight with eyes). The effect I got was also dubious - the muscles were squeezing my eyes in very uncomfortable ways.
So even if I could have clear 'flashes' or some clear vision for some seconds it was all with a big strain. It was not a solution that is why I given up.
I will put how I understand the process of recovery:
- What I hope to get in the long run is to shorten then exial length - this would be the solution. But then the results should not come too fast (you can get improvement in 2-4 weeks related to relaxing the ciliary muscle, many people could get then 1/2 diopter improvement).
So if it is possible to make the eye shorter it has to be triggered by long enough wearing PLUS (so you always look at your horizon giving the eye information it has to shorten). The whole doubt is about how much triggering is needed (if 1 hours is enough, or for all closeup work even 8 h a day) to make it work in a reasonable time (to see improvement before you give up
). - The other way it may possibly work - it is flattening of your inside lens - I do not know if this is possible or not but imagining that proper lens gives around 19D focus , so if you could push it to give 18 - you would win more acuity with your axial length unchanged.
- And yet another idea is that muscles could just try to just move your lenses close to retina by micrometers and this would also give better acuity (although I just wondering if biologically possible, and even it would it probably be unstable improvement).
If the avg figures Jack Steiner gives is less than 1D per year (I guess the age can count , as you get older everything is not that elastic) so it would be less than 0.1D per month avg (very optimistic). So looking at Snellen more often does not have any value (maybe except to keep your eagerness).
Depending on eye's fatigue I can get blurry 20/70 with weaker eye , or 20/30 if the lens inside my eye flattens 'correctly', but as astigmatism is big I have more issues with 'ghost vision'.
I had 'ghost vision' even before starting the PLUS, so it is not a result - I would attribute this to astigmatism ( but mostly I can see bigger shadows / when trying eyes are tired or when eyes try to strain to see more).
Blinking rather does not help with ghosts/shadows, what helps to get closer the image and then when it stabilize get farther away again (of course when eye's fatigue is not much).
My feeling after 3 weeks (wearing PLUS 4-8h a workday) is that eyes are more compact (
I have a tension in both places: ciliary sometimes when brain decides to say 'show me more clearly'

,
and from behind the eyes (I guess some muscles that tries to compact the axial length).
On average - as one can expect - when eyes do not try to stare, I feel ciliary is relaxed - so even if there is no value in recovery there is still a benefit to relax the eyes in front of PC.
Overall for acuity I can feel vision is this 1/2 D better (seeing on the street sharp edges of many things I didnt know they exist before) - you know it is similar feeling whenyou wear minus glasses and the world view is 'HD ready'

. But for more results I think I have to wait.