• Question: Would it be harder and could we be able to sleep without eyelids?

    Asked by jess040897 to Andrew, Daniel, Hayley, Natalia, Peta on 24 Nov 2011.
    • Photo: Daniel Scully

      Daniel Scully answered on 15 Nov 2011:

      I think when you sleep your eyes roll upwards,. Your eyes might be a bit dry but you’d probably get used to it.

      I had a friend at primary school who would sleep with eyelids open, it looked pretty freaky – just two completely white eyes in the dark.

    • Photo: Andrew Cairns

      Andrew Cairns answered on 17 Nov 2011:

      Your brain can do a lot of amazing things, and if we had the ability to cut out the signal coming from our eyes to stop light entering them at will then it would be possible, like switching off the TV at night. The problem would be keeping them moist, your tear ducts would have to be working overtime to keep everything okay!

    • Photo: Natalia Parzyk

      Natalia Parzyk answered on 18 Nov 2011:

      I think about it (feel to be interesting) and at my opinion is it will be harder for our eyes. I read somewhere that, during a long day if you feeling that slightly pain around eye area, you need to close them for a while, to stop the light coming to them (stop them being exposed to the radiation), but maybe it’s not only about light but also as Andrew said about keeping the eyes dry..I have nothing to do with biology so a kind of theory building for a purpose;)

    • Photo: Hayley Smith

      Hayley Smith answered on 18 Nov 2011:

      I have absolutely no idea! But as a kind of guess, if I were to have my eyelids horribly taken away from me, I think I’d end up wrapping a blindfold or something around my eyes so I could sleep in the dark, I don’t think I could in the light. And from a more biological point of view (I’m guessing here…) I reckon they may have something to do with preventing infection as well? Like a guarding action when we’re blinking? But that’s just a guess!

    • Photo: Peta Foster

      Peta Foster answered on 24 Nov 2011:

      I also had a friend at school who could sleep with his eyes open but i find it hard to imagine how he managed it. I think if i could do it i would use it cunningly to get more sleep without people noticing. 😛

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