Brain Expert: 'If You Have Brain Fog, Fatigue or Burnout — It Might Be Your Eyes!' | Bryce Appelbaum

This fundamental differentiation is crucial because many symptoms commonly attributed solely to eyesight issues—such as headaches, eye strain, or difficulty reading—actually stem from broader functional vision problems. These problems reflect how well the eyes work as a team and how efficiently the brain processes visual information. Therefore, merely prescribing corrective lenses addresses the symptom but rarely the underlying cause, leaving many people struggling with vision-related discomfort and fatigue.

The Link Between Vision and Burnout

Bryce challenges the common notion that brain fog, cognitive fatigue, and burnout are exclusively mental or psychological concerns by pointing to the visual system as a vital contributor. Since vision is a core function of the brain with extensive cortical representation, he explains that difficulties in the visual system can drain cognitive resources, impacting attention, memory, and mental stamina. Fatigue that accumulates throughout the day and diminished productivity often have visual underpinnings, where an inefficient eyebrain connection places sustained stress on the nervous system.

Further, Bryce explains how functional vision problems manifest as a struggle for the brain to keep up with visual demands, especially with today's heavy near-work activities involving screens and reading. This visual stress overload, unrecognized by many, feeds directly into cognitive decline or burnout patterns. Improving one's visual function, therefore, is not solely about clearer eyesight but harnessing better brain function and mental clarity.

Motion Sickness

Motion sickness, often dismissed as principally an inner ear (vestibular) problem, is explored through the lens of vision's critical role. Bryce reveals that vision and vestibular systems must work harmoniously to provide the brain with consistent, coherent sensory input. When they are out of sync—such as when a passenger looks at a moving phone or tablet—the brain becomes confused by conflicting signals of motion and stillness.

Interestingly, Bryce notes that drivers commonly experience less motion sickness because they are visually engaged with the environment, anticipating and controlling movement. This active visual input aligns better with vestibular signals, easing the brain's processing burden. Given that the modern environment throws unprecedented sensory demands through artificial and screen-based inputs, many individuals suffer from motion sickness that could be mitigated with proper visual training and awareness.

Reading Challenges and Vision Dysfunction

Bryce discusses how common reading difficulties, often mistaken for lack of focus or poor motivation, are frequently rooted in dysfunctional visual systems. Problems such as skipping words or lines, losing place on a page, and fatigued eyes are signs that the eyes struggle to work together efficiently for near tasks. Because reading requires precise coordination, focusing, and tracking, any breakdown in these functions creates a task that is more exhausting than it should be.

Such challenges may prompt people, including children and adults, to prefer audiobooks or listening as alternate means of consuming information. Bryce emphasizes that this preference may be less about changing attention spans and more about compensating for visual system fatigue. Reading with the eyes stimulates unique neural pathways, fostering visualization, comprehension, and critical thinking in ways that audio does not. Thus, unaddressed visual dysfunction undermines a fundamental learning and processing skill.

Vision Problems Misdiagnosed

One particularly profound insight Bryce offers is the overlap between symptoms of functional vision problems and those seen in diagnoses like ADHD, ADD, dyslexia, and other learning or behavioral disorders. He underlines that many children diagnosed with these behavioral labels display symptoms that can be explained by impaired eye coordination, focusing deficits, or poor visual tracking.

He argues that the medical and educational systems often jump to labeling behaviors without assessing the visual system as a root cause or contributor. For example, children who avoid eye contact, appear inattentive, or have difficulty copying from the board may simply be overwhelmed by the visual demands placed on them. Correcting visual dysfunction can therefore improve attention, executive function, and learning capacity, questioning the completeness of these traditional diagnoses when vision remains unexamined.

The Environmental and Evolutionary Mismatch of Vision

Bryce articulates how our visual system is evolutionary ancient, designed for natural environments characterized by broad fields of view, dynamic movement, and a balance between near and far focus. In contrast, modern life imposes unnatural visual demands: extended near work on screens, artificial lighting, and constricted viewing distances, which lead to visual stress and dysfunction.

This mismatch mirrors previously recognized cases in nutrition and physical activity, where evolutionary heritage contrasts sharply with contemporary lifestyles. He highlights that the surge in myopia worldwide, especially among children heavily exposed to screens and indoor environments, is a manifestation of this. The visual system—much like our metabolism—requires appropriate, varied stimulation and environmental exposures that modern life is failing to provide.

Reversing Myopia

Through his personal story and clinical experience, Bryce presents compelling evidence that vision—beyond eyesight—can be rehabilitated and improved with targeted training. His own eyesight improved dramatically from weak 20/400 to nearly 20/60 to better in just five days of intensive vision performance training, without corrective lenses.

He credits this not to generic eye exercises but to a structured, sequenced approach that addresses eye coordination, focusing flexibility, peripheral awareness, and neural pathways. This kind of intervention differs starkly from the conventional reactive model of optometry that simply prescribes stronger lenses. Bryce's work exemplifies a proactive approach that embraces neuroplasticity, retraining the brain and eyes to work together more effectively and restore functional vision capacity.

Peripheral Vision and Visual Flexibility

A recurrent theme throughout the dialogue is the importance of peripheral vision and its role in maintaining visual balance, reducing stress, and enhancing spatial awareness. Bryce explains how modern screen use often narrows our visual field and forces tunnel vision, which neurological studies indicate activates fight-or-flight stress reactions.

Cultivating peripheral awareness, through exercises like peripheral pointing and soft gaze techniques, re-engages broader visual processing areas of the brain and supports relaxation. This, in turn, can improve cognitive flexibility, movement, and emotional regulation. Peripheral vision also plays a central role in athletic performance and everyday navigation—skills that improve when the visual system is trained holistically.

The Impact of Visual Stress

Bryce connects visual strain directly to physiological stress responses within the autonomic nervous system. The typical widening of pupils and tunnel vision under stress, while adaptive in acute danger, become maladaptive in chronic screen exposure and indoor environments that demand intense near focus.

He argues that constant activation of this fight-or-flight mode through visual overload shifts overall nervous system balance, undermining relaxation, sleep, empathy, and social connection. This biochemical and neurological cascade contributes to systemic disease risk and mental health challenges. Conversely, intentional visual habits—like gazing at the horizon or alternating near-far focus—can activate parasympathetic relaxation pathways and enhance well-being.

Practical Vision Exercises

Bryce emphasizes that although intensive vision performance training is optimal, simple and accessible exercises can and should be incorporated by everyone to support visual health. He demonstrates the "eye push-up" focusing exercise to improve near focus flexibility and stamina, stressing that maintaining the accommodative system is vital to counter presbyopia and age-related visual decline.

Additional exercises, including eye stretches in multiple directions and peripheral pointing activities, serve to increase eye muscle flexibility and expand visual fields. He also advocates for the well-known 20-20-20 rule—every 20 minutes, take a 20-second break and look at something 20 feet away—to reduce near visual stress during prolonged screen time. Implemented consistently, these practical steps can significantly reduce symptoms of eye strain and cognitive fatigue.

How Vision Impacts Athletic Performance

The conversation illuminates the critical role vision plays in motor planning, coordination, and athletic success. Bryce recounts his own childhood struggles with depth perception and coordination and describes how vision therapy transformed his ability to participate confidently in sports like tennis.

Professional athletes similarly benefit from enhanced visual processing skills—improved central and peripheral awareness, tracking, and depth perception—that give them a competitive edge. Furthermore, vision influences posture and movement; exercises that activate visual pathways lead to measurable improvements in spinal rotation and overall motor control. This synergy of vision and movement underscores the visual system's significance beyond sight.

Social Connection and Emotional Health

Finally, Bryce touches on the profound influence vision has on interpersonal relationships, empathy, and emotional well-being. He notes how habitual visual dysfunction and screen-related restrictions lead to difficulties in maintaining eye contact and reading social cues, especially among younger generations.

This altered visual behavior reduces the quality and depth of social interactions, contributing to feelings of isolation and misunderstandings. Bryce warns that escalating screen dependency may further erode these essential human connections. By improving functional vision, individuals may recover this foundational element of empathy, presence, and emotional intelligence, ultimately enriching both personal relationships and community cohesion.