Open-eyed can be quite plain: your eyes are not shut. A baby lying open-eyed at three in the morning; someone in a hospital bed who is open-eyed but not really with you. It also means awake rather than asleep. People stretch it a little: to go into something open-eyed is to see the hard parts and still walk in — you are not pretending. That stretch still sits on the same picture: eyes open. It is a calm word. It is not the same as wide-eyed, which often means surprised, or a bit young and easily amazed. Open-eyed is about not sleeping, or not fooling yourself.