Trouble opening dream eyes

[APM]

This is a problem that has plagued my lucid and non-lucid dreams for as long as I can remember. It happens off and on, but sometimes when I'm dreaming my eyes either close off completely or I can barely open them at all and thus still can't see anything more than vague blurs. I don't know what causes this (fear/anxiety?), but I don't know how to do anything about it. I've had moderate success with spinning, rubbing hands, and other dream stabilizing techniques. It doesn't always work though. I don't think it's a problem of dream vividness, since the other senses still function fine. There's just some inhibition that seems to lock my eyes shut. Almost all LDs I can remember have either ended with this or faded into non-lucid. If anyone has experience something like this I'd appreciate any advice.

[rose_red]

Well, i've never had an experience like that, but it seems to be common with astral projection and what some people do is take their hands and force the eyes open, so to speak. Like open the eyelids with your hands. See how that works.

[CrazyInSane]

Rose_red mentioned using your hands to open the eyes....I used to do that all the time when I was a kid....usually in a lucid nightmare and I would want to wake up....I couldn't open my dream eyes sometimes as well, and the forcing them open did work... sometimes it would just wake me up though.

[2Fruits]

Just for interest, do you keep a DJ? Maybe in lucids you could try calling for 'Clarity' or something. Demand your dream to be clearer/more vivid etc.

[pj]

Being unable to open my eyes is one of my dreamsigns. Either I can't physically open them in the dream, or the light seems so intense that it hurts my eyes to open them... then I go through the dream with my eyes closed.

[SurvivorKylie]

This happens to me too. Often times it feels like I'm trying so hard to open my eyes that I must be actually opening them in my bed, so I'm afraid to force them open in fear of waking up. That's never actually happened; usually because I just give up and go around the dream in darkness like PJ until I lose lucidity or forget about the dream. I'm not sure what can be done to fix it, though.

[NeAvO]

This is a problem for me, although after learning it was a dreamsign, it seems to have stopped. Which is good and yet incredibly annoying as well.

[Vex Kitten]

I've experienced this too. It's really frustrating. I wasted a big chunk of a dream once struggling to open my eyelids. I had to gather all my will and demand that my eyes open but even when they did my vision was blurry. Had to demand for that to clear up this time and by the time I was finally ready to explore the dream lucidity slipped away and I woke up. I read somewhere that you don't need open eyes to see in a dream, that the best way to counter this problem is to remember that little point. Of course I didn't read that till after my last experience and I've yet to test it out.