Can’t Open Eyes in Dream (4 Spiritual Meanings)
Shakespeare once wrote ”To sleep, perchance to dream”, but what about when our dreams leave us anxious and unsettled? A dream about not being able to open our eyes certainly falls into that category.
We use our eyes to see the world and the people around us. It is also said that the eyes are the window into the soul. So what does it mean when we have a dream where we cannot open our eyes? Is it a bad omen? A premonition? Are there positive interpretations of a dream where we cannot open our eyes?
In this article, you will find the answers to all those questions.
Spiritual Symbolism of the Eye
To better understand what dreams, where we cannot open our eyes, might mean, let’s first learn more about the spiritual meaning of the eye. Across religions and folklore, the eye is associated with wisdom, superstition, clairvoyance, and protection against evil.
In physical reality, the eyes are not just a window into our soul, but our window into the world. We look others in the eyes to connect with them. Sometimes our eyes can betray our emotions, even when we try to hide them. Some people say they can tell if a person is lying by looking into their eyes.
There are many superstitions regarding eyes and evil. A person was thought to be able to instigate harm to others by simply looking at them with jealousy or malicious intent. Evil eye amulets were believed to block negative energies from such people.
The Symbolic Meaning of The Eye in Religions and Spiritual Ideologies
Eyes have also been referred to as portals to inner realms in various religions and spiritual ideologies. For example, in Hinduism, the inner eye, also called the third eye, signifies higher intuition and a gateway to different levels of consciousness.
In the Bible, the eye is referred to as the lamp of the body and a window into the soul. It invites light when its vision is clear and brings darkness when clouded. The Buddha spoke about the divine eye, a source of purified vision. In Ancient Egypt, the symbol of the eye signaled healing and sacrifice.
To find out more about the spiritual meaning of the eye, you can check out this article.
Dreams About Not Being Able to Open Your Eyes (Interpretation & Spiritual Meaning)
If you cannot open your eyes in a dream, though unsettling, it isn’t necessarily a bad omen. This is easier to understand if we consider the ancient beliefs about blindness. People in those times had a lot of respect for the blind and believed that because they couldn’t see the outer world, blind people often developed a strong third eye.
Often, the blind was considered wiser than others, and people would seek advice from them. In that light, we can view dreams where we cannot open our eyes as a potential to see something we cannot see with our normal eyes.
What Can a Dream of Not Being Able to Open Eyes Mean?
One interpretation is that you have a gift of spiritual vision and the dream is encouraging you to develop your superior vision through meditation and focus on your spirituality. On the other hand, it can mean that you cannot see something that concerns you. You have pushed it so far back in your mind that it cannot even enter your dreaming mind.
Perhaps you are protecting yourself from painful memories, weaknesses, or problems that are too difficult to face. The dream could symbolize your feelings of vulnerability and unwillingness to look inside yourself.
If it is only your left eye or your right eye that you cannot open, then it might mean that you are only seeing one viewpoint — yours. The dream means you need to be more open-minded and accept that other people may have different viewpoints than you.
Symbolic Meaning of Not Being Able to Open Your Eyes
If we were to lose our physical vision suddenly, we would feel lost. The world would seem unfamiliar and possibly threatening as we would be required to feel our way around with our hands or trust others to guide us.
A dream where you cannot open your eyes may be symbolic of how you feel helpless and lost in your waking life. There could be something that is making you anxious and not allowing you to live your life to the fullest. Another interpretation is that we are trying to safeguard ourselves from discomfort.
According to this article, the dream could also mean that your subconscious is telling you to open your real eyes. It is telling you that the trouble is you don’t want to open your eyes, not that you can’t. It is reminding you that ignoring a problem will not make it go away, but it is best to face it and take charge of your life.
What Message Could There be in The Dream?
Often dreams have certain messages for us. To decipher the message as accurately as possible, you need to focus on what is happening in your life. The dream could be giving you a message to help you through an obstacle in your life.
For example, are you going through a challenging time in your life? If so, the dream could be a message to hold on to your courage. Life will always have ups and downs, but hard times will pass. We just need to have the courage to get through them.
When you dream you cannot open your eyes, it could also mean that you need to look within yourself for answers. You may seek advice from others, but the best guide is the wisdom within you.
Dream Scenarios Where You Cannot Open Your Eyes
What your dream is trying to tell you will also depend on the context of your dream. For example, if it is a general sensation of not being able to open your eyes, then you might have trouble facing reality. You are hiding from the world and the dream is telling you to let your fear go.
Inability to open the eyes of our dream body because they are swollen might mean that something hurtful is coming our way. But all is not lost. If we examine our lives carefully, there may still be a way to avoid the hurt.
Eyelids that are glued or sewn together in a dream are a hint that your vision of yourself and others is not clear yet. The dream is prompting you to work on becoming more mature and develop your emotional abilities. Younger people are more likely to have these dreams.
For more dream scenarios and their interpretations, you can read this article from Mind Your Body Soul.
What About When You Really Can’t Open Your Eyes?
If we find we cannot open the eyes of our real-life body, even when we know we are awake, it could be sleep paralysis. But this is no cause for an alarm. Around 40% of people have experienced sleep paralysis, according to nidirect.
This is a phenomenon that has been described as a waking state that is consciously experienced during sleep. Sleep paralysis happens when parts of rapid eye movement (REM sleep) occur while you’re awake. In sleep paralysis, a person notices he is asleep while also realizing they cannot move their muscles.
In most cases, an episode of sleep paralysis won’t happen more than once. It is not harmful and usually, it is not a sign of an underlying problem. However, a person should see a sleep specialist if they experience sleep paralysis regularly during any stage of sleep or suffer from sleep deprivation or narcolepsy.
Summary
We can dream of all kinds of strange things, but they are often the way our subconscious communicates with us. They can be an invitation to take a good look at our lives. Though some dreams, such as a dream where you can’t open your eyes, can certainly be unsettling, it is rarely a sign of something bad coming into your life.
In most cases, even the interpretations that may sound negative can be turned into positive ones when we apply what the dream is telling us to do in our lives. We may dream that our eyes won’t open when we are going through a challenging time and the dream is telling us to have perseverance.
It can be a reminder to use your inner wisdom to tackle life’s problems. Listen to your intuition and you will find the way. Sometimes it is a sign that there is something painful in our lives we don’t want to face. When analyzing your dream of eyes that won’t open, remember to read the meaning in the context of your life.
Hopefully, we have answered all the questions you might have had about dreams where you can’t open your eyes. If you still have questions, write them in the comments section.
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