What's the Appeal of the Sleeping BJD?

I have a head with almost completely closed eyes, to the point where you can't even really tell what his eyes look like, and before that I had a head whose eyes were actually closed all the way. Both heads are great in the same way to me. I never really understood closed eyed dolls before either, but they are super cute in my opinion. I like to get mine and lay him on my bed like he's sleeping before I go to work; it never fails to cheer me up when I come home. Walking in to see what appears to be a tiny little guy asleep on my bed is adorable.

 

That's totally adorable! If I did that, I'd find my cat asleep and drooling on him though.

Ever since I got into this hobby I thought it would be really cute to keep a bunch of sleeping dolls in a little 1/3 scale morgue with little roll out steel drawers and toe tags and sheets. But that's probably just me...

 

I don't own one as yet, but at the moment I am waiting for my sleeping, or more aptly, daydreaming, tiny to be shipped to me. Sleeping dolls do look cute~! Like you, I also look at their eyes (in addition to mouth) when choosing a doll. But both "wide awake" eyes and "sleeping" eyes appeal to me in their own ways. While it is true that sleeping dolls cannot portray the full range expressions of wide awake dolls, likewise, there are also expressions that wide awake dolls cannot portray compared to a sleeping/daydreaming one. XD

 

My Dark's eyes are 'dreaming', you really have to be looking at the right angle to even see his eye colour. To be honest, before he arrived, I had been seriously considering modding his eyes open more, but I love the very different range of expressions I get from him just the way he is. ^^

The think with dreaming/daydreaming/sleepy eyes dolls is it's always fun to think about what they'd be dreaming or thinking about. Plus they usually look pretty unique too. Now I can say: 'Ssshh... He's sleeping, don't wake him!' XD

 

I don't have any fully-asleep dolls (though I do have two with half-sleeping eyes) but I have to say, I love to look at photos of sleeping dolls. They just look so serene and calm and sweet.

 

Honestly I wish all dolls came with optional sleeping heads/face plates!!!
Or at least that all of my dolls had them. I've actually considered buying
an extra head when possible just to have someone mod it into a sleeping
head....but so far I haven't had the spare money to buy one.....layaways
come first.

 

Pffff! DO IT DO IT!

I am completely in love with sleeping dolls. Thankfully my budget is rather tight, otherwise I'd have a whole house full of them by now. I think they look so cuddly and peaceful I used to think my favourite doll-feature was the eyes, yet I believe I actually just like the overall expression of a doll's face. Volks SwD Syo, for instance, is one of my dream dolls. I think he just takes the biscuit when it comes to cute. I want him to snuggle in among my "awake" dolls. Ugh! Can't stand the cute! *asplode*

Also, as others have mentioned, the option of modding the eyes open is very appealing, to create a truly unique expression.

My ultimate dream would be to have loads of sleepy/sleeping Koitsukihime dolls strewn on my furniture. Wouldn't that give burglars a shock, haha. Now where was that spare couple of million...

 

Having read all these interesting reponses, I think I'll have to get a sleeping faceplate for my planned littlefee, so I can have a cute sleeping baby to take "awwwww shots" of!

 

I'm not sure about the appeal of a 'sleeping' doll. Sometimes I'm not even sure about the 'dreaming' ones with the very narrow eyes that are almost not open at all. I just don't like it I suppose. To me, eyes make the expression, and when a doll's eyes are permanently in ONE position, IE sleeping or dreaming dolls, I can't get any other expression from them. They all just look wrong for some reason. It bothers me a bit. With open-eyed dolls I can adjust the eyes for different angles, different looks, and I have no problem having them read, sleep or look shy. Not that any of mine are particularly shy. >->

Its probably just me, but if I DID end up with a spare 'sleeping' or even a 'dreaming' head, I'd either get rid of it as quickly as possible, or mod the eyes open so that I was comfortable keeping it.

 

I have an adoration for dreaming dolls so I have been known to get sleeping faces so their eyes can be barely modded open.
Though I do have a sleeping doll (Angel of Dream Guai-Guai). I did originally want the doll to have his eyes parrtially open as the character has very narrow eyes anyway, but for some reason Guai-Guai having his eyes closed is actually just as perfect for him as his eyes being partially open, so I'm keeping him like that. They have a particular kind of cute about them, the same cute as I see in dreaming-eyed dolls, tis probably why that one just happens to work. There is only one other doll I'd want with closed eyes, but the character has closed eyes (and I cannot find a closed-eyed mould for him so I'll probably have to have his eyes modded shut ^^; )

 

I'm a squinty fan. I have a thing for squinty dolls, although I concede it can be frustrating or even outright futile to get eyes to show in them. Their faces can be serene or even secretive depending on the sculpt and faceup, and I find myself oddly drawn to them for reasons I can't easily articulate.

I will say that I prefer dreaming dolls to sleeping ones, although I've had a few beautiful sleeping dolls in my collection, too.

This guy here was my very first SD, and has been with me the longest of any of the dolls I currently own. I love him, he's definitely one of the few I occasionally just enjoy cuddling with.

 

Sleeping or not, they are beautiful.
And may not necessarily be perfect for some shoots.
But it's not like we never close our eyes.
They are a part of life, captured.
Just like we have our eyes open.
We also have our eyes closed. And this deserves just as much attention, imo.

They have a beauty on their own.

 

If you watch enough anime or read enough manga , you will eventually run across a character whose eyes are permanently closed and who walk around like they can see just fine. It's a well known character trope that these characters are either tricky or evil, or on the flip side, they are so enlightened they don't need to open their eyes to see. And when they do open their eyes, you know shit is about to go down. See Xelloss from Slayers, Ichimaru Gin from Bleach, Cho'un Shiryuu from Ikkitousen, or Yanagi Renji or Fuji Syuusuke from Prince of Tennis.

They don't really ever look asleep to me thanks to this, so dreaming or sleeping dolls aren't strange looking at all. I keep on hoping to get the limited dreaming eyed May head to go with my May boy someday. It really gives them a different look.\

My only qualms with dreaming heads is that they are more difficult to fit eyes in. High dome glass eyes, which I prefer, just don't fit in the socket as well.

 

I have one doll with completely closed eyes (Msdoll Drayton 2nd) and I would love to have more of sleeping dolls if I had space for more than I already have ^^;;;

I love sleeping dolls, especially the ones that have thier eyes completely closed. Before I got my sleeping boy, I was a bit worried I might get uncomfortable with his eyes being closed all the time, plus lots and lots of Drayton ownders end up opening eyes of their dolls. But now that I have him, I am 100% sure I'll never open his eyes, because his gentle closed eyelids are most favorite part of this mould for me.
And he doesnt look like he sleeps all the time, too. As it was said above, 'sleeping' face is quite versible too. AND 'sleeping' face has a mood that dolls with eyes open wide cant pull. As I see it, face with closed or nearly closed eyes looks like doll is daydreaming, is thinking about something, is content, is tired, is taking a moment to feel a wind on thier face, is shy, is remembering something from the past, is listening, is grieving ... You cant make this doll look at you, but they are truly coptivating, and adorable. When I was only starting on this hobby, I thought that sleeping dolls was boring, but now I am falling in love with every doll that has eyes closed x_x I dont remember at least one I hated! I loved each one I saw lately x3 And I would love to have sleeping versions of heads for all of my dolls So sad none of mine has sleeping verson of head!

 

St. James: Hahaha. The morgue idea is great. Definitely something I've never seen done before! Just imagine what your friends and family would think when they saw your new "display" for your dolls. XD

This pretty much wraps it up exactly for me. When people are asleep, they look so innocent and peaceful, and it's the same with the dolls to me. Seeing a sleeping doll makes me feel a little more peaceful sometimes.

 

Many people like to open their eyes and create their own shapes. Also, some are mildly open and can function as a glaring or reading look.

 

I like sleeping heads as alternate looks for dolls I have with open eyes, although I prefer faceplates for this purpose. I also have bought sleeping heads so that I could open the eyes just a little. Some companies make dolls with big round anime-type eyes that don't appeal to me much, but if I buy the same head with sleeping eyes, I can control the size of the eye opening to suit my taste. I love companies that offer choices.

 

While I do not own a dreaming head, I can see the appeal, and am looking at the prospects of purchasing one for a certain character who is very regal and refined. And the comment of versatility, I see alot of photo shoots and photo stories on here and the dreaming heads do grab you with certain emotions a full eyes doll cannot. And to agree with gaiaswill, which one indeed :P

 

I think they look peaceful. Very serene, and useful for photo-stories. However, the only reason I would get a sleeping mold, is to open the eyes a tiny bit and make the doll look east asian.