The “sleeping with your eyes open” thread got me wondering: Are the muscles in our eyelids different than other muscles in some way? It seems that keeping your eyes open is effortless; you need to make an effort (although not necessarily a conscious effort) to blink. However, keeping one’s eyes closed seems equally effortless. How does this work?
Think of it like a garage door. when it’s up it stays up and when its down it stays down. this is because the center of gravity is far enough back to prevent the door from falling when its up and when the door is down, it is stopped by the pavement(the springs are there to help you lift the weight of the door). Your eyelids work the same way. The muscles in your eyes are flexed only when you’re opening or closing them.