Closed Eyes

By observing and emulating others, we interpret the proper uses of our senses at different times. Although learning from others is a valuable skill, it often leads us to take unecessary applications for granted. For example, people have learned to keep their eyes constantly open when they are awake even when they are not navigating the physical universe. While this habbit does not seem to harm people physically in any way, it may be worth our while to question this common habbit.

Perhaps we have developed so strong of associations to keeping our eyes open in our waking state and eyes closed in our sleeping state, that our bodies react negatively when we break those norms. Some people sleep with their eyes open (usually due to short or weak eyelids) and usually become irratated by dry eyes (netwellness.org). This is an obvious reason not to sleep with our eyes open.

But there does not seem to be as obvious of a consequence to staying awake with our eyes open. Because of the association with sleep, some people might feel like they would not be able to stay awake. But this could probably be overcome by practice. This may cause sleeping difficulties, since there there would be less physical differentiation between visual images during times when people want to stay awake and visual images when people want to fall asleep. But this could probably be prevented by changing the content of the visual imagery when eyes are closed to make a different type of distinction.

A benefit may be enhanced memory for information. Prominent cognitive psychology research indicates that imagery improves recall and recognition on auditory recall tasks. For example, closing ones eyes and creating visual images of words while listening to word lists increases recall of those words. Thus, closing ones eyes during a professors lecture and creating images of the professors words may help the student remember the information.

Another possible benefit would be easier access to abstract ideas. Without a physical environment to guide our perceptions and consequent ideas, people would be forced to form images from their imaginations. Since human imagination is not limited by the laws of the physical universe, this would help people think outside of the physical realm and entertain metaphorical and pataphorical ideas more easily.

Although there may be more potential defects to closing eyes when awake, these potential benefits support experimenting with the idea. While the status quo allows us to function, it may not be the best way to strive, improve, and evolve as human beings. There is really nothing to lose; one could simply open their eyes.