I tried the Bates method for many years (10 times a day or more during my teens) and noticed that I was slowly going blind. That was a variation called the Masterbates method though!
Seriously though, there are other eye excercise regimes other than Bates. This area is known as Vision Therapy. I went to a vision therapist in the UK several years ago because my eyes were being strained by doing constant VDU work. As I was doing my initial Class 1 ordeal, I was getting very jittery about the medical. I was given a program of eye excercises that concentrated on focusing on a near object and then at a far one. After a month or so of excercising my peepers, they felt much more healthy and I passed the medical. Now I fly most days my eyes feel pretty good without training them, but I still use the program I was given once in a while. Here's a link to my favourite excercise toy:-
http://www.merrimackvision.com/pr_teamingBROCK.html