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Episode Summary
Have you ever gotten to the end of a long day on your computer and felt like your brain was simply done?
Your eyes are tired. You can’t focus. Light feels irritating. Reading takes more effort. Maybe you even start avoiding your phone because you cannot look at another screen.
Most of us assume that means our eyesight is getting worse.
But in this episode, Dr. Mariza sits down with neuro-optometrist Dr. Bryce Applebaum to explain why eyesight and vision are not the same thing.
Eyesight describes how clearly you see. Vision involves how your brain receives, filters, processes, coordinates, and responds to the information coming through your eyes. And when that eye-brain connection isn’t functioning efficiently, symptoms can show up as headaches, motion sickness, dizziness, trouble focusing, sensory overload, brain fatigue, and even ADHD-like behaviors.
Dr. Bryce also explains why screens place such unusual demands on the visual system, why functional vision issues can become more noticeable during midlife, and how concussion and other brain injuries can disrupt vision even when standard eye exams look normal.
The encouraging part?
The brain remains adaptable.
Through targeted vision training and the right evaluation, Dr. Bryce explains that the eye-brain connection can often be retrained and strengthened at almost any age.
DR. BRYCE APPLEBAUM
Dr. Bryce Applebaum is a neuro-optometrist specializing in vision performance and helping people improve how their eyes, brain, and body work together.
His work focuses on functional vision, visual processing, traumatic brain injury, concussion recovery, learning challenges, screen-related visual stress, and vision performance training.
In this conversation, Dr. Bryce explains why a traditional eye exam may miss important functional vision problems and why improving vision can involve far more than simply changing a glasses or contact lens prescription.
IN THIS EPISODE
- Why eyesight and vision are two very different things
- How functional vision problems can cause brain fog, headaches, motion sickness, and sensory overload
- Why visual processing problems can sometimes look like ADHD
- How changing hormones and screen exposure can increase visual strain in midlife
- Why screen time places unusual demands on the eye-brain connection
- The childhood signs that may point to an undiagnosed functional vision problem
- Why concussion and traumatic brain injury can affect vision even when eyesight appears normal
- How vision performance training uses neuroplasticity to retrain the brain
- Practical ways to reduce screen strain and support healthier visual development
QUOTES
“Any brain at any age has the opportunity to be trained and rewired.”
“There’s neuroplasticity for vision at every age.”
“If we’re testing, we’re not guessing.”
RESOURCES MENTIONED
Stop surviving and start thriving, join Midlife on Fire Collective now
ScreenFit online vision training program
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