In our dreams, all kinds of strange things happen to our bodies. Me, I’ve had an invisible arm, strange objects embedded underneath my skin and even had my teeth break into tiny pieces, to the point I was spitting, what seemed like, sand out of my mouth.
When trying to figure out what the strange things that happen to your body in a dream mean, it’s important to remember that all the different parts of your dream body represent all your different mental and emotional parts. Your dreaming mind will give form to your mental and emotional abilities so you can better understand how well or how poorly you are using them.
Below is a dream about one of the more common bodily afflictions that occur in our dreams: the inability to open one’s eyes. It is a great example of how this works. This is from my nationally syndicated column The Dream Zone…
Dear Lauri,
I dreamed I couldn’t wake up. I was fighting, clawing at my eyes, trying to get them to open and they wouldn’t. I could hear everything around me but I couldn’t do anything. – Kate 44, Mosinee WI
Lauri: It sounds like this could be sleep paralysis, where you temporarily get stuck in between being awake and asleep. It tends to happen when we aren’t getting enough good solid sleep. However, you didn’t have the sense of being unable to move so, I will also go ahead and treat this like a dream.
While the eyes of our real life body give us the ability see, the eyes of our dream body give us the ability to “perceive and to understand.” This is why we say, “I see,” when we understand something that has been told to us.
Is there anything you have been turning a blind eye to lately? Something you are afraid to know or face because you are afraid of having a “rude awakening?” Are people telling you things you don’t want to hear? If so, that’s why you could hear what was going on around you but couldn’t do anything.
Kate replies: My ex-husband has been trying to get back with me and I’ve been avoiding the situation. Yet, I still want him in my life but then again I don’t. So I’m torn. The heart says one thing yet brain says another. And yes, EVERYONE has been telling me not to take him back.
Lauri replies: Well, it seems your subconscious wants you wake up and take a good look at the truth. He’s an ex for a reason. The subconscious is much wiser than we are. Look at it as your second, smarter brain. And listen to it!
Kate’s dream is trying to show her that, taking back her ex is like trying to go through life with her eyes closed. There will be many bumps, trips and falls that can be avoided if she simply opens her eyes and sees the truth.
Dreams are powerful things! In fact, they are the most powerful part of who we are. Whether your dreams are advising you, warning you or inspiring you, they are an endless resource you can tap into every single morning… once you know their secret language! My book Dream on It will have you understanding your dreams in no time! Keep it by your bedside so you can easily figure out your dreams as soon as you wake from them. You’ll wonder why you didn’t get it sooner!
“Since I’ve been reading your book, my friends are always asking me to help them interpret their dreams! You are the best!”
– Jessica Martinez, Aurora, CO
“This is an AMAZING book! It was given to me as a gift and I love it! I could hardly put it down. I refer back to it often to interpret my dreams now. I loved it so much I recommend it to everyone I know.” – Mel Martin, Amazon reviewer
Dreams are powerful things! In fact, they are the most powerful part of who we are. Whether your dreams are advising you, warning you or inspiring you, they are an endless resource you can tap into every single morning… once you know their secret language! My book Dream on It will have you understanding your dreams in no time! Keep it by your bedside so you can easily figure out your dreams as soon as you wake from them. You’ll wonder why you didn’t get it sooner!
“Since I’ve been reading your book, my friends are always asking me to help them interpret their dreams! You are the best!”
– Jessica Martinez, Aurora, CO
“This is an AMAZING book! It was given to me as a gift and I love it! I could hardly put it down. I refer back to it often to interpret my dreams now. I loved it so much I recommend it to everyone I know.” – Mel Martin, Amazon reviewer
I have this dream every night, and have just had it 3 times while trying to nap since I’m not feeling well. it’s starting to affect my life as I’ve become too scared to sleep. I won’t even be trying to go to sleep I’ll just be laying down eyes closed but before I know it I’m in a dream with my eyes glued shut, while in my dream I fear I’ll never wake up. I can hear my surroundings ( I will pick up my phone in my dream and try getting it to make a sound that might actually wake me up) one of my biggest fears in the dream is that someone will come into my room while it’s happening and say something like ‘wake up’ and I won’t be able to. It’s as if it has learnt my fears now and it tricks me by doing just that. I’ve had experiences where my partner next to me will be saying things like ‘you won’t wake up’ or he will be speaking to someone else like ‘ah she’s asleep im gunna go out’ and im thinking noooo im stuck help me!!
Everytime I panic although I have this often, each time it feels so real and I’ll try to pry my eyes open and bang on the walls in hopes that someone in my house can hear me.
It really is the most terrifying experience, I’m not sure what I would class it as, is it a dream? Sleep paralysis? False awakening? I’m unsure but have spent my whole life trying to find out and still haven’t found the answer
I keep having dreams where it’s hard for me to open my eyes, most of these dreams I’ve had before but my last one I’d never had that dream before and i had to forcibly open my eyes, half the time using my own fingers. Other times it’s just one of my eyes, always my right that I have trouble opening.
I’m on this site looking for answers to the very same dream. I have this dream often and in that dream I’m saying to myself , open your eyes! And, like you,I use my own fingers to pry them open.
I feel like mine occurs only when I’m taking a nap and I feel like it’s because I feel guilty for taking a nap when I should be doing something.
Hello
Did you ever receive an answer? I have a similar dream and my eyes want to close and I am prying them open to keep open. But eye lids have a mind of their own.
I just had a dream – where by i was doing something in my garden and my aunty said something about how the garden looks nice but (the rest i didnt hear) so i said let me come closer i cant hear you. i walked over then i went completely blind. Tried to physically open my eyes with my fingers couldnt. then the next thing my uncle was like get up you cant lay here all day. so i got up and walked using my hearing to were he was walking, all the while still trying to open my eyes.. Then eventually i woke up in a panic in real life.. This dream of me being blind happens to me so so much, most of the time it starts a blurriness, like i have been swimming to much. then i go blind and cant see anything sometime for a very long time but fully aware of my surroundings.. Please help with this,
I experience this In the same way when I try to open my eyes its always impossible but the fact is before certain situations in the dream I use to see but there is a part where I want to see and my eyes become blind to then after that part I see again and sometimes I don’t see again
I feel like mine occurs only when I’m taking a nap and I feel like it’s because I feel guilty for taking a nap when I should be doing something.?
My grandfather passed away 18 years ago. I always have the same exact dream with him in it. It’s always inside the apartment he lived in when I was young. In the dream the apartment looks exactly like it did back then. We don’t seem to talk in the dream. We are just together. There has been several times I have woke and the first thing I think is I need to call grandpa. Then I realize I can’t. The dream is so real. I don’t understand why it’s always the same exact dream and what it’s telling me. Is if telling me that my grandpa is with me? I was very close to him and yet he was sick he still passed away unexpectedly.
Hey! I just woke up from a dream.
I could hear hear everything around me for the first minute of the dream but after that i started dreaming, STILL AWARE I couldnt open my eyes but I was NOT aware I was in a dream the only part where I know its not a dream is the first minute when I could hear Everything around me
Today I had a scary dream where my eyes were closed And I was force to open my eyes so I did but then my eyes were closed again and I was so afraid and alone in my home(dream) but certainly I was able too see things around me though my eyes were closed , so I ran , seeking help from my family because I was able to hear their voice, I calling my family members name,I reached into a room from where I was listening voices, but then I found out the door was closed I was pushing door with my full force and door opened little and I was awake
Dear Lauri,
This is weird but I am 13 and I have had scary experiences, while I am asleep I suddenly see a particular type of dream ,i cant open my eyes or even scream ,my eyes are tight shut and it feels like my voice is gone. I even cry but I am still stuck. It goes like that for 4 to 5 minutes then I can finally open my eyes.
Another weird thing is while I am half asleep , I see a set of picture of random people, then those set of pictures start going faster and faster , honestly it is scary, the last picture is the scariest , it is not a picture of a person but a picture of a giant thing in a white room and the giant thing is falling over me and suffocating me and then it ends because I wake up.
Lilia, you might be having sleep paralysis. Search it up and see if that relates to your experience
Dear lauri,
its kind of weird but I am 13 and I have had experiences where I saw a particular type of dream and I couldn’t open my eyes or even shout I start to cry but nothing happens my eyes are still shut and I am still stuck in that stupid dream , after at least 4 to 5 minutes my eyes finally open but I have experienced this a lot of times.
Another weird thing while I am half asleep I see a set of pictures of random people and then those set of pictures start to play in my sleep faster and faster and , honestly it is scary and then the last picture is the scariest , it is not of a human but a giant thing falling over me or suffocating me .
I was getting dreams of pure darkness I couldn’t open my eyes, shouting out to my mum, but I was seeking God at the time I was asking if anyone out there to give me signs, I was having them signs for a year till had my spiritual awakening 13 weeks ago and definitely a wake-up call and since accepting lord Jesus Christ as saviour of my life, I haven’t had one of them dreams where I couldn’t open my eyes all gone and the peace I’ve got now all my stress worry’s all gone it’s amazing what God can do for your life. God bless all who read this Amen
I woke up at 5:30am today and brushed and got very good vibes and read the current affairs and some editorials
and then at around 7:30am, I slept instantly thinking that I could wake up at 8 for my exercises. So, from then, for an hour I slept so deep that my vision was so hazy and I was struggling to see things there even though my body was functioning perfectly there. Let me tell you one of the multiple things I dreamt about… I was living in a very good condo with a great surrounding and very good connections of mine which I don’t have now of course. People gave importance to me. My voice had some value. Anyway, apart from this, I saw that I was working with one of the agents from “the mentalist” series called Wayne Rigsby which was a great experience but the thing weird was the other agents were behind us as we were trying to protect a lion with just head and no body with his cubs in a cage kind of thing. We encountered other agents and still I was struggling to see people and at that instant something out of the blue happened in that situation when I was complimenting two of the Bollywood actresses who actually were listening to me and I was talking to them like a pal.. one being my favourite Kareena Kapoor Khan and the other being her sister Karishma Kapoor and that’s when I was pretty happy and I finally got up.
I had a dream where I had a friend that has snacks and those snacks never attempt to bite me only this day that we kind of had a misunderstanding with my friend…. Then I was trying to run away and when I was almost at the gate and my friend held the gate close so I couldn’t escape and then the one snack out of all those snacks bit me, Grace 22
One time I dreamt I was running but I couldn’t open my eyes in the dream . I was running with my eyes closed because it took great effort to open them
Exactly the same.. couldn’t open my eyes, started running with my eyes closed while trying to open them to not trip on all the rocks under me.
Hi, I keep having the same dream when I go into a place and come out my car is gone. I had this dream last night and this dream was a family members old home that I went into came out car is gone. This was the first time the same house was in this particular type dream. This was the first time my spouse was in this dream. What does this mean?
Some nights i dream some i dont but the nights i do dream all i remember is my vision moving in a wobbly figure 8. What does that mean
Well 8 is a lucky number
Currently just woke up from a dream that felt sooo real . There were two parts. The first part I was having a three some with my girlfriend – ex girlfriend now (broke up 2 days ago but she still lives with me we still basically do the same things just established we’d be single and she’s due to move out in a few weeks) but anyways in the first part the 3 some portion was fine. After that scene some what switched. I was sleeping in the dream and I was in my exact room. Except, there was a door to an attic exactly like the room I was in as a child. In the dream, a friend walked in the room and went in the door to go to the attic. As she went upstairs my ex and I continued to have the 3 some. Then the friend knocks on the door to come out of the attic and my ex opens it for her and she leaves our room. Then I am sleeping again. As I’m sleeping it’s as if my eyes are blurry and I can’t really open them fully. As if I was super tired and couldn’t keep them open. I was hearing a noise in the background like it was a dirt bike reving from riding up the street. But then I couldn’t differentiate between it being a dirt bike or gun shots . So that scared me and I attempted to get out of bed (this is all in the dream) but as I tried to get up my eyes would close from being so tired . Finally I was able to make it to the door of my bedroom and walk out. Walking out the room mimicked the one I am innnow. My back door was open and as I peeked , it was a couple people walking up the steps in the back hallway to their apartment, feeling confused as to why the door was open I quickly shut it and proceeded to try to check the house. Suddenly a person appeared in front of me. As I seen him i fell to the ground in terror. He just seemed to stand over me. Through this whole process I am trying to scream “help me” but the words could not come out. It was like I would start to be able to scream out “help” but my voice would fade out/ shut off . Now I am laying in bed eyes very blurry and in the dream I am trying to blink repeatedly like you would when you first wake up but my eyes would just keep closing as if my body was forcing me to sleep. Trying to scream help because like I said my ex sleeps next to me but I couldn’t get her up because I couldn’t scream/talk. Finally I wake up IRL and it looks just like my dream except I can talk and wake her up to alert her that I had “a bad dream”. I am spiritual in a sense so upon awakening I “plead the blood of Jesus” to cancel away any bad spirits or demons. As I was taught this as a child. I’m sort of afraid to go back to sleep bc I don’t want to go back to that dream or anything similar to it. I don’t remember this ever happening to me before but it was reallllly scary.
I had the very same kind of dream. I couldn’t speak or see very. I could could communicate very much and was lost in a sense.
No communication
I couldn’t open one eye in my dream, what does it mean
I had a dream where I was driving and I couldn’t open my eyes. Scared me so badly I feel like I need to stay awake.
I have this many times and I think it’s sleep paralysis I can’t open my eyes or move from my bed and it’s scary as fuck.
Dear Laurie
I have been having the same dream. Where I am home. My normal life is going on. I fall asleep on my couch and in my dream I wake up but I can’t open my eyes. I cry scream ..run around my house( in my dream) trying everything to get them open. It scares me because it’s like my normal life , like I’m not dreaming at all. Could this be a type of sleep paralysis?
I have the same thing and I just had one again right now. Where I’m in my room and I cant open my eyes I get up and move around trying to force them open. I would really like to know what that is.