Does Having Your Eyes Closed In Bed Count As Sleep?
No, but it’s not like it’s not beneficial either
Since you clicked on this headline, you have probably felt the same way as me and every other living human being while trying to sleep.
Your eyes are closed. But you can’t sleep. You hope you will fall asleep soon, but you lay there for ten minutes, without being able to sleep. You lay there for thirty minutes, without being able to sleep. And then you lay for hours and it’s pretty clear you’re not going to move into another state of consciousness.
When I was young, I once laid in bed, not able to sleep but still having my eyes closed the entire night. I do not remember how tired I was during the day, but I have thought about how effective laying in bed with my eyes closed actually is. I know I’m not actually sleeping, but I’m not quite fully awake either, right?
According to Bryan Fung at The Atlantic, some scientific studies have called laying in bed with your eyes closed “quiet wakefulness.” Neuroscientist Chiara Cirelli says our neurons are firing when we’re awake, but when we’re asleep, our neurons go to an “up-and-down” state, and during the deeper parts of sleep, our neuronal activity goes completely silent.
