Thinking becomes dozing

Despite my intentions of using the time for careful introspection, I ended up inspecting no more than the backs of my eyelids.

Laurie R. King, A Letter of Mary (New York: Picador, 1996), p. 63

Heavy eyelids

My eyelids suddenly got very heavy very fast. Don’t you find it hard to keep them open when that happens? And also, why bother?

Spencer Quinn, To Fetch a Thief: A Chet and Bernie Mystery (New York: Atria Paperback, Simon & Schuster, 2011), p. 16

Uriah Heep, asleep

There I saw him, lying on his back, with his legs extending to I don't know where, gurglings taking place in his throat, stoppages in his nose, and his mouth open like a post office.

Charles Dickens, David Copperfield (1850), ch. 25  (describing Uriah Heep)