I do this a lot. I dont know why or how I do it. But I am like you where I dont have eye problems. I think somehow I also cross my eyes sometimes too. I dont think I have a lazy eye either…

@calipalagigirl Yes, I do that sometimes too. I never mean to, but it’s something I don’t notice until I’m doing it.

You’re just letting your pupils dilate a bit. Nothing harmful about that.
The pupil is a sphincter muscle. If you relax that muscle, your vision will get blurry. If you space out, you’re not trying to see anything, so you forget about your pupils and they relax.
That’s my ad-hoc explanation.

@jfos Me too!

When you are looking up close you are accommodating (constricting your ciliary muscles in your eyes). When you zone out, I assume you are just temporarily relaxing your ciliary muscles so things at near are no longer clear.

If this is accompanied w/ eye strain it may be of concern if you haven’t seen the optometrist in the last year.

Another possibility is computer vision syndrome: http://www.allaboutvision.com/cvs/

@palbertq In addition to “zooming in” and “zooming out”, there is a “blur” function. This is one of the factors that I’m asking about.

The blur is accompanied with improper focus (zoomed out when you should be zoomed in).

If you french fry when you should pizza, you’re gonna have a bad time!

It happens to me whether or not I’m wearing my glasses. I have been told that it’s normal, so I don’t really worry about it.

Yes. I do that too. I measured that I am focusing at something beyond infinity. The pupils control the opening (bright/ dark). The lens controls the focus.
You can test and measure this effect by with a cheap pair of 1.0 diopter reading glasses. 1 diopter means the focal length is one meter. If you look at something one meter away your eyes wil be focused at infinity. Now “zone out” and move back from the object. How far did you move? 15cm? 30 cm?

This is a neat skill to have. You can use it when driving in the rain without your windshield wipers. You “zone out” a bit to look through the rain drop on the windshield and see beyond more clearly. It works. Enjoy.

I do it. Kind of feels like I’m sleeping.

Yes, I’ve asked a question similar to this one a few weeks ago that’s not a dig by the way… just might be helpful :-) x

yup, i think it’s fun

On purpose, to see things in a different way. I don’t think I do anything that would cause me to space out and not be looking at something, Get a book.

I do that more than i think i should. I paint and draw a lot and I blur my eyes to see what it would look like from a distance, but after i do that, i find it increasingly difficult to get my eyes back to normal focus. Im thinking of going to an eye doctor to see if it is actually a problem or if this is damaging my eyes.