How to Sleep With Your Eyes Open

Frankly, when I read about sleeping with your eyes open for the first time, I was astounded; obviously because I hadn't heard of sleeping with open eyes ever in my life! As much funny as it may sound, it actually isn't. That is what I realized after reading about this strange yet interesting idea of sleeping with the eyes open! Simply put, sleeping with open eyes is a kind of meditation technique. Yeah, that's right! If you are interested in knowing how to sleep with your eyes open, then go through the following paragraphs and the concept would be clear enough.

First of all, you need to understand that sleeping with your eyes open is not a normal habit for any individual. It is a form which needs to be practiced and trained for. Being humans, we all sleep by closing both the eyes mainly to avoid any sort of disturbances to the visual stimulus as well as for preventing the eyelids from drying out which could otherwise cause eye problems later on in life. This is the simple reason why we, human beings, sleep with our eyes closed entirely. There are a few animals who keep their eyes open while sleeping but that is mainly for defense purposes and nothing related to meditation, of course!

Another aspect you need to be aware of is, sleeping with open eyes as a habit isn't a good sign as such. It is often related to many sleeping disorders like lagophthalmos (sleeping with one eye open) and not considered good for health. So, as I mentioned earlier, sleeping with your eyes open is actually a kind of awareness meditation or mindfulness meditation wherein both the eyes need to be partially opened (and partially closed).

Meditation, as we all are aware, acts as an excellent stress reliever by keeping our mind calm and stable. The same principle applies here too.

• For starting with how to sleep with open eyes, you need to be in a good and stable mind state. Relax and lie down on the bed or floor, as per your wish.
• Next, make your mind firm on a particular object or thing in such a way that you observe the object and do not analyze it. Just observe the colors or appearance.
• Do not think of anything or analyze anything for that moment. And this is relaxation which is integral to any form of meditation.
• Now close your eyes half way, half closed-half open.
• Stay calm and do not move. Try to concentrate firmly. I would suggest, do not move or roll since it could be one of the major distractions in the whole technique.
• If you are going about correctly, you would soon be in some other world, half asleep and half meditating. This is it! You will experience the benefits gradually. In case your eyes pain too much or become watery, stop right there.

Honestly, it is difficult to comment on the effectiveness of this meditation wherein, it might work for a few, while it might not, for others. This, seems to me, as one of the very good meditation techniques. So there isn't any harm trying it.