# Asleep with eyes open **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 15, 2019, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/asleep-with-eyes-open/827777 "2019-01-15T02:58:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2019, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/asleep-with-eyes-open/827777/21 "2019-01-15T20:33:40Z")
I’ve seen dogs and cats, but it would freak me out to see my Wife like that. ---
**Author:** ![Snnipe\_70E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5a626/32.png) [@Snnipe\_70E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snnipe_70E)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2019, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/asleep-with-eyes-open/827777/22 "2019-01-16T04:45:29Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#): > > My son used to do this, back in the day, up till when he was about one. It was awful. Because you know, normally when you’re getting a little baby to sleep you do whatever it is you do, they go to sleep, then you sneak out. But I couldn’t sneak out - he’d SEE me! > > These days naturally he’ll sleep through an earthquake. Especially if it’s a school day… My sons and grand sons also sometimes sleep with their eyes open. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2019, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/asleep-with-eyes-open/827777/23 "2019-01-16T17:26:18Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Dogs and cats sleep with their eyes open. Why don’t humans? I’ve had dreams that I was still in after my eyes were open, that incorporated what I was seeing into my dream. I remember one in particular where I woke up on account of seeing something that was just _too_ discordant for my brain to incorporate into the dream. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2019, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/asleep-with-eyes-open/827777/24 "2019-01-16T23:01:59Z")
A clinical definition of sleep is quite different from what you or I think of as being asleep; that drowsy phase before falling asleep will often qualify as “asleep” during a polysomnogram. That said: I’ve never “slept” per se with eyes open, though I’ve been severely drowsy a few times where an EEG might have said I was slipping into an early stage of sleep. And I know of at least 3 times where I got out of bed and did things (nothing regrettable), appeared functional, and went back to bed afterward, where clearly I was at least somewhat asleep. Once as a kid, walked out into the kitchen, said something to my parents, went back to bed. Once in college, got a phone call, spoke for a couple of minutes, went back to bed, and recalled nothing of it. And once after college, I got up, got into the shower, and was toweling off, when something in my brain said “huh? kinda dark out there!” and I looked at my watch, saw it was 2 AM, and went back to bed. In all 3 cases, I am certain my eyes were open for at least some portion of the activity, but clearly I would not have qualified as awake by any reasonable definition. My son went through sleep terrors as a toddler. Horrible, horrible, horrible… his eyes would be open, and he’d be screaming and incoherent, and UTTERLY unreachable. No soothing worked. We had to just let him scream, and scream, and scream until he quieted down. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2019, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/asleep-with-eyes-open/827777/25 "2019-01-17T00:11:59Z")
Is there a user named “Frank Cass”? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2019, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/asleep-with-eyes-open/827777/26 "2019-01-17T08:27:43Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Dogs and cats sleep with their eyes open. Why don’t humans? Cats and Dogs have a side eyelid (as well as a top and bottom eyelid), which flicks across and acts as a window-washer. Humans don’t have that, so our eyes dry out if we go to sleep with our eyes open. New a guy who would go to sleep in class when the teacher wasn’t worth listening too. On wages, so he wasn’t supposed to be sleeping in class. Not a vet. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/asleep-with-eyes-open/827777.md?page=1)