Sometimes I wonder about weird things — today it’s eyes…
I think about things and wonder:
- what causes it, or
- how it works, or even
- why can’t I find anything about it.
Today I got to think about eyes and sleep.
Have you ever noticed that you’ll be asleep and it’s dark and some sound or something wakes. But, you come to consciousness but you don’t open your eyes and everything is dark. Then you open your eyes and it’s bright sunshine. Now here’s the part I wonder about. If you then close your eyes it’s not dark when you do — the light is filtering through your eyelids and its obviously light beyond your eyelids.
Why is that? If the same eyelids before and after you open your eyes. Is it like your eyes have to turn on and they don’t boot up until your open them then they recognize the light outside the lids? I mean what causes that difference in sensation.
It’s just something I’ve been pondering. Being me I Googled but didn’t find anything specifically about what I’m wondering about mostly I learned a lot about how the eyes perceive light and how color vision works — stuff I mostly knew from college. But the answer to why it’s dark until you open your eyes and then it isn’t anymore doesn’t seem to be one of the big questions scientist ponder. Guess it’s just me.
If you happen to know how/why this happens I’d like to hear about it.
January 26th, 2009 at 5:14 am
Your eyes roll up into your head when you sleep. That’s why they can’t put you out to do eye surgery (like lazik or cateract sugery). This also happens to be people passed out drunk or unconscious, their eyes roll up.
There also might be something to the re-boot factor too, or rather your conscious mind isn’t yet. It’s that whole incorporate sound in real life into your dreams, where part of your senses switch on.
But yeah definitely, when you’re really relaxed and tired/exhausted, you’ll find your eyes rolling upwards. Feel free to try. It’s a good way to avoid filtered sunlight when you have a migraine, and it might get you to sleep faster too.
January 26th, 2009 at 5:11 pm
That answer causes a Duh! moment. I remember reading that about eye surgery because I wondered why they had to be awake for it. However, I never thought of it as an explanation for the ponderable. Thanks.