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The original was posted on /r/tifu by /u/Specific-Nebula9665 on 2025-11-25 02:23:33+00:00.
Ever since I was a kid, it took me ages to get out of bed. The sunlight coming through the window seemed so bright, I couldnt even open my eyes past a squint. It took maybe 20-30 minutes of blinking, squinting, and sometimes fumbling around with my eyes closed before I was "fully awake".
My mother told me that it just took a while to get used to the light in the morning, and that it took a bit to fully wake up. I planned every morning around 20 minutes of blinking, squinting, and trying to not go back to sleep.
I am 27 years old, so this has just been a fact of life for me. I set a second alarm about an hour before I have to actually get up, so I have plenty of time to "wake up", and possibly fall back asleep for a bit. I have a toddler now, and he sleeps terribly, so mornings have been rough for me.
One morning I took a picture of myself with my squinty, lopsided (because one side was able to open a bit more) eyes, to show a friend how exhausted I looked first thing in the morning.
She asked me why my eyes were like that, and I told her I hadn't gotten used to the light. She was even more confused.
I asked some friends and did some googling. It was not normal, most people... Just open their eyes in the morning. A friend suggested that maybe I slept with my eyes open, and while I wasn't sure about that, I noticed that my son did sleep with his eyes cracked, so it stood to reason that I did too.
I bought nighttime eye gel and eye drops for the morning, and used them for the first time last night/today. Sure enough, I woke up with my eyes a bit sensitive and hard to open (less than usual, thanks to the gel). I reached for the drops, put them in... and opened my eyes immediately. It was like I had been up for an hour. The light didnt bother me, my eyes were wide open, and I felt wide awake. My entire life, I had thought it was normal, but I cured myself of a daily inconvenience by spending $20. Now I am trying to convince my mom to try the drops, too, lmao.
TL;DR: TIFU by thinking that the symptoms of me sleeping with my eyes cracked was just part of life.