This is a strange little phenomenon that I’ve been curious about for some time.
When I close my eyes to go to sleep, if there’s something within my field of vision that is close to my face my eyes will continue to focus as though trying to perceive it. This happens also if I move my head (with my eyes closed) and doing so brings something within a certain rainge of my field of vision.
An example would be if I closed my eyes while lying on my back (looking out toward the ceiling) but turned onto my side thereafter. My nightstand is only about a foot away, and my eyes would focus to that distance, even thought I can’t see where exactly my nightstand is.
It doesn’t make sense to me that my eyes should try to focus on something that I can’t see. Many times I will have to open my eyes and orient on something in the distance to ‘reset’ my vision in order to fall asleep, but I have to be careful not to move my head where I know something will be close to my face.
Am I just weird? What is this phenomenon, and how can I fix it? Do I need to see an eye doctor?
Just a WAG, but I think that says it right there…where you “know something will be.” You know your nightstand is about a foot away, and although you can’t actually see it, you’re trying to, and therefore trying to focus on it.
I’ve thought about that, but it also happens when I don’t know where something is, but can slightly perceive its location due to either movement or acoustics.
I guess what I’m really looking for is why do my eyes do this even though they’re closed and I’m not actually trying to see anything?
It’s a reflex or more likely, habit. Vision is your most-used sense and the main way your brain learns about the world around you. If your brain knows something’s there, it will automatically try to see it, even if it can’t.
re: acoustics… Also, the human ear is more sensitive than you’d think. It’s pretty adept at picking out distance and direction of a sound (though not as adept as cats/dogs). Your brain decoded the approximate position of the object and your eyes automatically tried to spot it.