Almost completely unchanged since the show's debut in 1965, the titles show an hourglass, as sand slowly trickles to the bottom. In 1966, the focus moved from the entire hourglass to the bottom, with the sand trickling away as the theme played. In 1972, the current title lettering was introduced, a condensed version of the Times New Roman typeface in yellow coloring (before then, the show's title was in generic caps).

In 1993, a computerized version of the visual was made, with completely redone sound effects and rearranged music composed by Charles Albertine, Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart. In this version the hourglass, now slowly spinning clockwise, starts focus at the bottom-half, overlooking the dawn. As the sun rises, the focus is zoomed out, and the audience sees the entire hourglass and the show's title "flourishes" on to the screen as the music flourishes. While the entire hourglass is revealed, the clouds in the sky change formations.

A portion of this open is also used as a mid-show break bumper, starting after the hourglass has zoomed out and title has appeared with Macdonald Carey announcing "We will return with the second half of Days of our Lives in just a moment."

A shortened version of this open exists, which was used in the summer of 2004 as the show's time period was shortened due to coverage of the Martha Stewart trial. It is still used from time to time when episodes run over the allotted time, most recently on the August 10, 2006 episode, in which John and Marlena returned after a summer's absence.

From its debut in 1965 until March of 1966, announcer Ed Prentiss spoke the words now made famous by MacDonald Carey. Since April 1966, the late Macdonald Carey has intoned the legendary epigram "Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives." From 1966 to 1994, he would also say, "This is Macdonald Carey, and these are the days of our lives." After Carey's passing, the decision was made to remove the second part of the opening, out of respect for Carey and his family.

In the summer of 2004, the show's theme song was changed to give the tune a more majestic feel. As this coincided with the height (or depth) of the Salem Serial Killer storyline, many viewers speculated that the change in theme was signaling a profound change in the nature of the show (and perhaps a clue to the outcome of the plot itself). Both versions (the 1993 theme and the new theme) were alternated by every other day, but was scrapped after only being used in eight episodes with the 1993 theme the only one used since; the 1993 theme tune was reinstated with no comment from Days publicists.

Days of our Lives 's 1993 open is currently the longest used open among the current soaps, most of which have changed their opening sequences more frequently than Days. What's unusual about Days and NBC's other soap Passions 's (whose opening has been used since it premiered in 1999) opening sequences have yet to change their opening sequences. They are also the only American soaps not to feature their main cast members in the opening sequence.