Performing tasks with your eyes closed

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I've noticed myself doing certain tasks with my eyes closed, such as drying my hands in the bathroom. I'm usually not conscious that I'm doing so until I become aware that someone else is around me, and then I feel a bit self-conscious and open them. I suspect I do so because it enables me to focus on the task at hand while minimizing other distractions. I even do it when loading film on a reel in a changing bag, despite the fact that it's the film that can't "see" any light, not me.

Anyone else do routine tasks (hopefully not driving!) with their eyes closed?

I take my nightly meds in the pitch dark so I don't have to turn the lights on. I can tell which is which by shaking each bottle and remembering which each med sounds like and which each pill feels like. I do most of my bedtime routine in the dark. I don't do it for focus reasons though.

I tend to do a lot of non visual things with my eyes close. It helps a lot with reducing sensory input and distractions. I do this in board meeting to help me listen and concentrate on who's talking. People in the meeting think I'm asleep, until they call my name and are shock to find out that I was really paying attention all that time.

Sometimes I like to do things with my eyes closed as well. I find it can be very relaxing and soothing. Anytime a sensory stimuli can be removed for a moment, it helps me calm down a bit.

^^^ +1

When I'm really talking about something complicated in a meeting I will close my eyes to speak to "get things right". My co-workers are used me doing this.

I close my eyes while walking, especially if it is really bright out. Not the entire time I'm walking, of course. And only on flat surfaces like sidewalks.

Yes! I've noticed that I close my eyes when I'm putting my hair into a ponytail or bun. I get sensory issues if my hair in a pony tail or bun is raggy or uneven and not just-so, so I concentrate fully on getting it to my liking. I guess that's why I close my eyes too, now that I think about it; to aid in concentration and visualize what I'm doing (I bend downward to comb it down, rather than look in the mirror).

I close my eyes a LOT, due to my logaesthesia. I don't want to have to see plastic silverware, or cobwebs/spiders, or certain franchises, or anything else that will make me have to purge. It makes it hard for me to find my way around stores.

One autistic thing that got me tested for everything was playing piano with my eyes closed as a child.
I also do plenty of things in the dark or without my glasses on, which is the same thing.
One funny instance of this was remembering I had some cleaning spray in my pack so putting my glasses down on the table, walking into the living room basically blind because I knew where it was and didn't need to see, finding the spray by touch, walking back into the kitchen and going to pick up my glasses, and someone had picked them up to try them on and gone to answer the door. I was left to pat down the table trying to find them by touch, then touch my way down the hall and accuse them of confusing blind people.

...I do , some .

I do that, too, to block out bright sun. My eyes are overly sensitive to bright light. If I'm walking down a light-colored sidewalk on a bright day, I quickly find myself squinting hard or even closing my eyes. For the same reason, I almost always wear sunglasses while driving during the daytime, even if it's overcast.

Because of my poor eyesight, I can not read large blocks of text well. So, I taught myself Braille for general reading.

Because of my hypersensitive sight, I always wear prescription sunglasses and I still need to shut my eyes at times. So, I taught myself to do some tasks by touch.

Since straining to read text or filtering too much visual stimuli is painful, just closing my eyes is obviously relaxing. But learning to read Braille and do tasks by touch has also been exciting and stimulating (in a good way).

This has actually become a special interest for me lately.

...I will somethimes close my eyes , say , getting through a tight space , to turn instinct on .

I often find I can improvise better on trombone if I close my eyes.

One time at Putt Putt golf course,
many years ago in a galaxy far, far away ...
I bragged that I could get a hole-in-one
with my eyes closed and one hand behind my back.
... And somehow, I did.
Never happened before,
never will again.
But it was fun while it lasted!

...

Yes, I do this. It was unconscious until I noticed it several months ago. It happens when I am doing dishes. I think it's a visual-protective thing, an automatic response to all the soap, colors, reflections, motion, and visual textures of washing dishes.

My father who I strongly suspect is HFA (didn't talk til age 4 and almost textbook Asperger's symptoms) sometimes closes his eyes when he talks to people. It weirds people out. I thought it was an unconscious way to avoid eye contact but it may be that and an unconscious visual-protective thing and a concentration thing.

I used to play the piano and now that someone else mentioned it, I used to play with my eyes closed or not looking at the keys because I couldn't see them, they like pushed my eyes away.