The Brain Blog

 Eyes Wide Open?

It is consider a norm that when one sleeps, their eyelids are
shut, the mind spurs into silence and everything begins to fade away as they
are drifted into a dreamless sleep, only to awaken to the obscuring light of
the sun pouring its love onto their faces and the chirping of the birds in the
early morning. But have you ever wondered if there exists someone whose eyes
are never laid to rest, not even a spur of moment? Does such anomaly exist?

Today, there is one being who sleeps with his eyes wide
open. Across the South East region, in the land of fascinating sights , in
the heart where the 88-storey skyscraper looms in the city that never sleeps, a
25 year old hailing from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia has been slumbering in the corner with his eyes wide open. Endorsed
by the World Guinness as "The Man that
Never Sleeps", Mohd Aidil Harith does his regular activities as how one
would go about, he is as healthy as a bear but in the night, his eyes never
seem to tire even when he is fast asleep. How does one tell? According to Dr. Mike Buganga, an ophthalmologist and a neuromuscular
specialist from the Harvard Medical School, "Tests have shown that when his eyes appear NOT to blink for at least a minute,
that is when he is fast asleep" says Buganga.

Buganga has ruled out any possibility of an
eye infection, or any form of muscular dystrophy syndrome – a symptom of facial
weakness. "He is as healthy as anybody else".

Acclaimed Author Michael Crichton best known for his work in "Jurassic Park", "Congo" and the controversial "Next", has bought the rights to write up a book based on
Aidil’s peculiar sleeping to etch the underlying beauty of this irregularity.
The book is currently titled  : "Eyes Wide Open". Crichton in a press conference had this to say “I’m 62 years old. I’ve had a good life. I’m
happy and I’m enjoying myself," he said. "I don’t need any of the flak that would come from doing a book like
this". Crichton continued "My view
of this is that this is truly God’s gift. There’s always something unique that
comes out of us, the "what" and "when" are just a matter of time before we can
discover it ourselves"

Crichton’s new book is penciled sometime in 2009.

Dr. Buganga on BBC News.

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Acclaimed writer Michael Crichton Buys Rights For Aidil Book.

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Yahoo News also has this reportage

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and also included in Malaysia’s Premium Paper, The Star