The other day my roomate was napping. Her alarm went off, but she didn’t get up. I went to see if she was awake. Her eyes were open, but she wasn’t moving. She looked like she was kind of in a trance. I kept calling her name until she finally snapped out of it. She seemed confused so I asked her if she had just woken up, which was weird because her eyes were open the entire time. She said yes. That really freaked me out and I was wondeirng how it is possible to sleep with your eyes open. Why would someone do that?
Well, it’s well known that people sleepwalk, and you certainly have to have your eyes open to do that.
Muscles in the body are always under some tension among themselves. The eyes shut mainly because muscles are imbalanced in favor of the ones shutting the eye. But if those muscles are overtired or relaxed to the same degree then nothing will happen and the lids will not move. This happens with people who die. There is no automatic contraction reflex that would favor open over closed eyes at death.
I worked with a woman who told me she slept with her eyes open. She said it freaked her husband out.
May have been sleep paralysis. Mind wakes up (and usually the eyes open) but the rest of the body remains in the state of paralysis that sleep induces.
My pet rats sleep with their eyes open all the time, maybe humans can too…
Not sure if it’s relevant to the OP or not, but I have a friend who is completely blind, since birth, and he often sleeps with his eyes open. This lead me to theorize that one major reason for closing our eyes to sleep is to shut out extraneous stimuli. Of course, my reason for posting to threads like this is so that I can toss around phrases like “extrneous stimuli” and feel intelligent 
Actually not so sure it’s possible. Many people sleep w/ lids partially closed, just enough to cover the pupil-that’s all you need. Doubt sleep is possible w/ pupils fully exposed to light. BTW, sleepwalking is not sleep- more comparable to a fugue or depersonalized state. The sleepwalker has no memory of act, & is usually has amnesia for it.
My dog will often fall asleep with her eyelids open, but she rolls her eyes back into her head and you can’t see any pupil at all.
Which points me back to the OP…is it the act of keeping your eyelids open or the act of leaving your pupils exposed that you find odd?
I knew a woman who slept with her eyes fully open. She would sleep on her back with a cloth over her eyes to keep the light out. Take the cloth away, and there they were, wide open. Freaked me out. She told me the reason, but this was a long time ago and I only dated her a couple of times, so I don’t remember what she said.
What I’m wondering now is, wouldn’t your eyes get all dried out doing this? Seems they would be all sticky and crusty when you woke up. DAMN! Sorry I saw this thread, got me thinking about it again. FREAKY!
We had a thread about this some time ago… I think the consensus was that those who can sleep with eyes open can do it because they are able to blink while asleep.
While I was in bootcamp sleep deprivation was the norm. Consequently many people started falling asleep with their eyes open, because the instructors couldn’t catch that as easily. Not that they were able to do it conscously. It was more of a reaction to stress. So I believe it is safe to say that sleeping with your eyes open is a classically conditioned behavior.
While I was in bootcamp sleep deprivation was the norm. Consequently many people started falling asleep with their eyes open, because the instructors couldn’t catch that as easily. Not that they were able to do it conscously. It was more of a reaction to stress. So I believe it is safe to say that sleeping with your eyes open can be a classically conditioned behavior.
I’ve fallen asleep with my eyes open on a few occasions. It was usually after waking up in the morning, when I should have been getting my ass up, but dozed off again. I would have dreams that looked like they were being projected on the ceiling or wall. Each time it was very brief, very light sleep; I doubt I could do it all the time.