how is it you fall asleep when your eyes are shut?

Question

when your just laying in bed and not even that tired, and you give it time, and you shut your eyes, how do you fall asleep? how does just shutting your eyes make you fall asleep? someone explain that please? thank you.

Answer 1

Well this is an interesting question because sleep is so very poorly understood even though we've been studying it for decades.

From reading sleep journals, closing your eyes automatically induces a 'rest' sequence, like a switch flipping in your brain that sychronizes brain activity. You can experiment with this by simply closing your eyes and feeling how your body reacts to it. Your breathing rhythm changes, you mind automatically quiets down, your brain cycles down into an alpha state which is what prepares the mind and body to sleep.

This process is automatic (sleep disorders not withstanding) and occurs everytime you close your eyes. So by closing your eyes, you signal to your body a preparedness to go to sleep.

Now many things are unclear but there are a couple of interesting things that may help explain things further.

1. Your eyes themselves consume twice as much oxygen as any other part of your brain, in addition, processing visual information requires vast areas of your brain. Closing your eyes automatically shuts of visual input, no more light striking the back of your retinas, no more production of fatigue chemicals such as CO2 and lactic acid.

2. Closing your eyes shuts down a lot of involuntary movement because we use our eyes to help us navigate spatially. So by closing your eyes, we cut our energy use drastically and promote restfullness.

Answer 2

Good question. By closing the eyes, you shut off input to the visual cortex. While the details are still poorly understood, this immediately slows the frequency of brain waves from about 20 to 8-12 Hz. This is called an "Alpha" cycle and is generally very relaxing.

Answer 3

Human body receives information from outside world through eyes,nose,tongue,ears and skin. Sensations are actually stimuli to keep humans awake and responsive. Eyes supply 80% of stimuli or closing eyes removes 80% of our disturbance from outside. So biologically and reflexly eyes are first closed and gradually others senses stop informing the body about outside world.Sleep is thus induced

Answer 4

Closing your eyes shuts down a lot of involuntary movement because we use our eyes to help us navigate spatially. So by closing your eyes, we cut our energy use drastically and promote restfullness.

Answer 5

when your main source of info is sight shutting that down pretty much shuts your body down to basic functions. no info to process. the brain has nothing to process therefore goes into daily nocturnal hibernation (sleep).

Answer 6

some human beings can bypass to sleep with their eyes open. yet taping eyelids open has been used as torture before to stop the guy dozing. i assume in case you have been born with out eyelids you in all probability ought to, yet possibly it would be slightly extra stable in case you lost your eyelids in a terrible stitching device twist of destiny.

Answer 7

It makes it dark...