If a child sleeps with his eyes ajar - what to do? Photo: Getty
Sleeping baby with half-closed eyes: from legend to reality
Popular wisdom explains the fact that a childhe sleeps with his eyes ajar, like this: in ancient times, when tired parents fell asleep in their caves, exhausted from daily troubles, only children, who are always full of strength, guarded their sleep. The kids slept with their eyes ajar to wake up mom and dad in time when a stranger or a predator appeared in the dwelling. Modern ophthalmology looks at a dream with open eyelids differently, calling this phenomenon “lagophthalmos”. Causes of lagophthalmos are in disorder of innervation of the circular eye muscle, mechanical trauma of the eyelids or anatomical features (excessive protrusion of the eyeball or short eyelid).
Sleep with eyes open in babies
Diagnose lagophthalmos can onlySpecialist (optometrist or neuropathologist)! And parents should worry only in the case when the baby sleeps with its eyes ajar all the time. If the eyelids are not tightly closed only during superficial sleep (a short time after falling asleep), this is not a pathology, but most likely a nervous and physical overexcitement experienced by a crumb during wakefulness affects. this is normal, says the TV host, Dr. S. Agapkin, if it does not lead to sleep disturbance. In a child after one and a half years, lagophthalmos may be episodic due to daytime overexcitement. ” Physiological lagophthalmos in the first 12–18 months of a baby’s life is not a pathology! Usually, due to nervous overstrain, lagophthalmos is accompanied by flinching, jerking of limbs, mumbling or babbling in a dream, smiling or laughing, and sometimes crying. But if parents are worried that the baby is sleeping and their eyes are ajar, you just need to make the day for the baby less saturated with emotions.
Is lagophthalmos dangerous?
Basically lagophthalmos in children passeswithout succession. But if the pathology is manifested in the daytime, when the child cannot close his eyelids consciously, this may be the reasons: - drying of the mucous membrane; - infection and perforation of the cornea; - loss of vision. The problem is eliminated surgically - blepharoration. See also:
