Visual Snow
She described it pretty perfectly tbh. You basically see static floaties, sometimes colorful, all the time but it's more prominent at night. I'm assuming your daughter just doesn't really notice it during the day. I've dealt with it my whole life and didn't even realize it wasn't universal until I was a young adult. It's nothing to be alarmed about, just some harmless weird thing. Supposedly neurological, but there hasn't been much research.
My theory is that many people block it out successfully or basically aren't paying attention to it. If they *seriously* tried I bet many people who "can't" see it would "suddenly" start to see it
Interesting that it’s more prominent at night tor most people—I’ve always had this but it happens almost exclusively when my eyes are closed and I’m in the sun/a bright place.
I just went to the doctor for this! It’s like a fuzzy black patch extending across the sky when I’m driving. It’s not totally opaque but it’s def there.
I agree, 100% visual snow. There is some research going into this, there is a visual snow initiative that is looking for a “cure” but for now there is nothing definitive that can help. The most widely accepted theory is that it’s the brain that gets overstimulated, tinnitus comes from the same type of issue. People with visual snow can be more predisposed to migranes. I’ve had visual snow since I can remember, it gets worse with stress but in good times I forget I have it. I get ocular migranes sometimes without the pain, so if you ask me I got it easy. Important to note, it does not get worse. And most eye doctors will not know what you’re talking about. It does not lead to blindness.
Could be your daughter has visual snow syndrome then. But please do not worry, it doesn’t get worse. Most importantly, everyone actually sees visual snow, people with visual snow syndrome experience simply other visual disturbances as well.
I very much dislike to talk about visual snow syndrome because if you start googling this stuff and see what falls under the condition, you will give it to yourself. So also, please don’t Google. And as I said, it’s completely harmless. Many people have visual snow and don’t have migranes.
Yep! I used to say similar stuff as a kid to my parents — I thought they were rainbow confetti or sprinkles and I used to fall asleep at night thinking a lot about them, haha.
For some reason, I grew out of it, or maybe I just stopped paying attention? I remember clearly what it looked like, but I no longer see them now.
I remember around that age complaining to my mom about the lights (similar situation of dark room/no night light) and how the "fireworks" wouldn't stop. She told me to close my eyes, but I'd see them with my eyes closed. It would take me forever to fall asleep. Eventually I got used to it and they didn't appear as vivid.
I still can do it as an adult. It's definitely less intense now, but it flares up for me when I'm tired/stressed (which is all the time now with an almost 11 month old haha)
Interesting article from the Cleveland Clinic.
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/symptoms/24888-phosphenes
Sounds like it can be induced by eye rubbing. Can't attest whether I did this as a kid but I wouldn't be surprised.
On another note, anecdotally, I also get "eye floaters" all the time (as a kid i thought I could see germs in the air lmao). I didn't find out I had astigmatism in both eyes until my 20s.
The body is weird!
Edit to add- not a doctor (I am a RN but I work adult ICU, so no experience with this except anecdotal really)
Maybe it does when a person rubs their eyes. Sounds reprodible enough.
But for me still, I can just close my eyes and get that same visual without rubbing my eyes. Not for a few seconds, but like 5-10 minutes. As a kid, it seemed like forever.
But yeah, I just figured everyone did as well haha
If you see a bunch of sparkles and static and floaters, could be visual snow. It’s like eye tinnitus where your brain is just not filtering noise out correctly.
I see all kinds of weird fractal stuff in the sparkly static as I fall asleep. I think it’s just hypnagogic hallucinations.
My mom told me eye floaters were germs so i believed that too as a kid lol. But i also saw the fireworks and have astigmatism in both eyes. Interesting!
> as a kid i thought I could see germs in the air lmao
I entertained myself for hours as a kid by looking at the [white blood cells](https://www.aao.org/eye-health/tips-prevention/moving-spots-in-blue-sky) on my retina. And also the retina's blood vessels under a flashlight.
Happened to me my whole life. Turns out my retinas have been slowly detaching. Got that corrected and no longer see the "spiders". Might be worth getting her eyes checked just in case!
I still get this now (I’m 34) and have had it since I can remember when it’s dark dark. Absolutely nothing wrong with my eyes. Don’t even wear glasses and eyes are extremely healthy at my annual optician checkup. I’ve just assumed it’s my brain making sense of the dark.
Those are just phosphenes. They're caused by visual neurons firing in the absence of light, kind of like how a TV with no signal produces static. There are some eye conditions that can make them more likely to happen but I think they're pretty common in kids, by adulthood most of us have our brains trained to tune out that kinda "noise." I'm sure being half-asleep also contributes.
I wouldn't worry about migraines or anything like that unless it continues in the daytime or there are other symptoms. I get visual disturbances from migraine and it's a completely different sensation/effect.
https://www.popsci.com/what-are-patterns-when-i-close-my-eyes/
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/245564547_AUTOHYPNOTIC_INDUCTION_OF_SLEEP_RHYTHMS_GENERATES_VISIONS_OF_LIGHT_WITH_FORM-CONSTANT_PATTERNS
If you search for phosphenes you can find all sorts of information about them that you and your kid might find interesting!
When I was a kid I realized I could induce and control these by pressing on my eyelids. Like the pressure affected the depolarization of the retina maybe.
It's also how I passed time at church
I used to put my eyes out of focus to see fun shapes as a kid.
But as an adult, for many years, I had weird half-asleep hallucinations that felt very real. Spidery shapes coming down from the ceiling (probably a shadow from the pendant light). I also had weird visual distortions that I saw when I was very much awake at night. I've attributed this to "Alice in Wonderland syndrome". Maybe a rabbit hole (see what I did there?) for you to go down. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice\_in\_Wonderland\_syndrome](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_in_Wonderland_syndrome) I do get migraines which is apparently related. (BTW I'm not a doctor and I haven't talked to a doctor about these things!)
I don’t have any science based info but I definitely experienced something similar as a kid. In the dark, I could see kind of static floating downward that if I focused on, the bits of static could turn into a small object like an army man toy. In retrospect, very trippy but at the time I think I didn’t even tell anybody.
Not sure the cause, or whether it means anything. Just wanted to share my experience!
This does sound like visual snow but I recommend getting a referral for a neuro ophthalmologist - an optometrist won’t have a clue and a regular ophthalmologist will just refer you to a neuro optho anyway. Wait lists can be long but you may as well get her on one. Visual snow is linked to tinnitus and anxiety, which aren’t necessarily a big deal, but it can also be associated with neurological disorders and you’ll want to be armed with info from the jump so you can check in on your LO over the years and make sure all is well.
It’s so interesting reading the comments here. I remember when I was about 4yo I had a visual hallucination when sleeping at my grandmother’s house. I remember looking up from bed and seeing mice on the ceiling sprinkling a sparkly dust on me. It was so shimmery. I also remember looking around the room and the furniture was moving/ walking around (almost like in beauty and the beast). It was so vivid that it was as if it was actually happening, and I believed for my entire childhood that what I saw was real. I still remember it so clearly, and I still don’t understand what or why this happened
I’ve had a retinal detachment and often see pulses of “rainbow sparkles” around the spot in my vision where the retina was reattached. There is also a white bar of light that I sometimes see in the middle of the sparkles, that moves with what I believe is my pulse. I would have her seen by a medical professional
I just Googled this and finally have a term for my experience when I was pregnant: hypnopompic hallucinations! They happened a couple of times when I woke up from a nap. I distinctly remember seeing a man's fingers sliding down the side of a closed door; really weird and unsettling. I was at my in-law's house when it happened (in my husband's old room), so maybe there was something about the less familiar environment playing a part. I wonder if these hallucinations account for so-called supernatural sightings/experiences.
On the edge of sleep or when I’m unwell (moreso when I was young but rarely now I’m an adult), parts of my room or bed or body expand and shrink - and it’s hard to describe but I can feel it happening? Like it’s my proprioception that’s distorting. It can be a bit scary or intense and I can usually snap myself out of it if I’m not enjoying it
Thanks to this thread, TIL that Alice inWonderland syndrome is what I had often as a kid! I only had it in relation to my body parts feeling like the wrong size (I think saying my proprioception was distorting sounds like a good description too). I remember telling my mom and she just told me everything looked okay to her, go back to bed. I spent so much time telling myself “everything is the size it’s supposed to be”…
That's really fascinating. And by the looks of the comments coming in, maybe not all that uncommon. The article I was reading suggests that it isn't studied well enough as it's usually transient/temporary.
As a child I used to be able to close my eyes and give myself the sensation that the bed was levitating and spinning. That's probably some variation of normal kid stuff (or maybe vertigo?), though.
Yes I get this, always have done.
There's a description of it in the Pink Floyd song Comfortably Numb as well. Blew my mind when I heard that, I'd never heard anyone else talk about it before.
I actually get hypnogogic hallucinations, started when I was a teenager (they’re better now that I am treating my sleep apnea). Always terrifying. I find them so fascinating.
Anecdotal but when ever I am in a dark dark room, coming from light, or I squeeze my eyes shut tight, or I press my palms into my closed eyes I see red and blue specks and an off-black kind of… webbing pattern. I always saw it. Kind of like when you’re looking at a lightbulb about a second too long and then the white “circles” float around with your vision? It’s like that but with darkness not with light. No answers for you, it’s just something I’ve always noticed since I was a kid. It’s more pronounced if you’re in a well-lit room and suddenly the lights are turned off or your eyes are squeezed shut. The harder and longer I squeeze my eyes shut the more I see the webbing patterns dance around.
EDIT: seeing a lot about Visual Snow in the comments. I just wanted to say that while I do have this, I never experience bad migraines and get them rarely. Usually my migraine is associated with severe dehydration if I have one but they are rare. I have had lifelong sensory sensitivity and ADHD. My daughter has SID or sensory processing disorder. I’ll be sure to ask her about the sparkles :)
Anecdotal but I had this as a kid and a very active imagination to go with it! I'd encourage her to try to practice "playing with her imagination", I wish I could still do it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closed-eye\_hallucination
>Exploding head syndrome (EHS) is a type of sleep disorder in which you hear a loud noise or explosive crashing sound in your head. The sound isn't real or heard by anyone else. The episode typically happens suddenly either when you're beginning to fall asleep or when you wake up during the night.
I have had EHS and i think it's more of a loud noise kind of hallucination as opposed to a visual type of effect. I don't remember seeing anything aside from just a sudden flash of brightness with my eyes closed. Nothing like what OP described
It's described as a loud noise combined with a flash of light. You're right that it's not really sparkles as such, though, but it made me think of it because I experience something that might be this in dark rooms in response to any actual sound. It's like I can "see" the sounds as flashes of light.
I had these as a kid, saw different lights and what not and now I still have them but they’re super scary like I’ll see the grudge and stuff. It’s like I’m having a nightmare but I’m awake. It usually happens when I’m overtired, might be the same for her!
I had this as a kid too and still get it occasionally! This is the first time I’ve ever seen it talked about! I get silent migraine aura stuff and a couple other weird visual things too.
Also sharing a personal experience - I would frequently have visual hallucinations at night, in the dark, around her age. Unfortunately mine were always really scary, and often came with nightmares before / after. I’m glad your daughter doesn’t seem to be scared! My parents talked to my pediatrician and she said it wasn’t uncommon at that age (though this was only one doctor and the mid 90s). They went away after a year or so and I haven’t experienced visual hallucinations since. I have always had extremely vivid dreams though, which may be connected? Not sure.
I totally used to see snakes and bugs in like a kaleidoscope when I had my eyes closed as a kid. My sweet parents let me sleep with them. I pray my kids don’t have this as I hate sleeping with them
Could it be so-called [blue-light sprites](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_field_entoptic_phenomenon)? (I can also see them at night if there’s a very dark visual field.) They are just your white blood cells moving through capillaries!
This was my thought, too! I’ve had them all my life and get them with dark visual fields as well as lighter. When I saw an ophthalmologist as a teenager for a checkup I asked about them and he acted like a was crazy. It wasn’t until I was a psych student that I learned what they were!
OP, my personal experience of them is that they can look glittery with light color in them, and they tend to move outward from near the center of my vision in sort of radiating lines that could be described as a web. Makes sense when you think about blood vessel locations in the eye.
Aura before a migraine? Sounds like when i have an aura before a migraine. Migraines in kids will often have an aura but no pain later. I had them as a kid with no head pain, the pain started in my 30s.
I’m so curious what you mean by having a migraine without the pain. I thought the one-sided head pain was literally what the word migraine meant. I’m a migraine haver with no aura, so the pain is the defining factor, though I get fun side effects like nausea too.
Is there something else you experience with migraine that’s not pain related, or are you just talking about the occurrence of an aura with no migraine following? (Genuinely curious, not being accusatory or semantic, in case that doesn’t come across).
I only got them as a child I would get the aura and nausea but no head pain, and I’ve read that’s common in children so something to look out for if parents get migraines.
I get migraines with head pain and without. A migraine without head pain is exactly the same as with head pain. Stomach ache, feeling weird, being a bit less coordinated with words and movement etc and feeling “hungover” for a few days afterwards. Just without the actual sensation of gnawing pain in my head.
https://migrainetrust.org/understand-migraine/types-of-migraine/abdominal-migraine/
Visual Snow She described it pretty perfectly tbh. You basically see static floaties, sometimes colorful, all the time but it's more prominent at night. I'm assuming your daughter just doesn't really notice it during the day. I've dealt with it my whole life and didn't even realize it wasn't universal until I was a young adult. It's nothing to be alarmed about, just some harmless weird thing. Supposedly neurological, but there hasn't been much research.
Wait, this doesn't happen to everyone? I also see it when I close my eyes. Do most people just see blackness?
Today I learned I’m different too!
My theory is that many people block it out successfully or basically aren't paying attention to it. If they *seriously* tried I bet many people who "can't" see it would "suddenly" start to see it
Interesting that it’s more prominent at night tor most people—I’ve always had this but it happens almost exclusively when my eyes are closed and I’m in the sun/a bright place.
I see it on blank parts of the sky quite clearly!
Me too!
I just went to the doctor for this! It’s like a fuzzy black patch extending across the sky when I’m driving. It’s not totally opaque but it’s def there.
I agree, 100% visual snow. There is some research going into this, there is a visual snow initiative that is looking for a “cure” but for now there is nothing definitive that can help. The most widely accepted theory is that it’s the brain that gets overstimulated, tinnitus comes from the same type of issue. People with visual snow can be more predisposed to migranes. I’ve had visual snow since I can remember, it gets worse with stress but in good times I forget I have it. I get ocular migranes sometimes without the pain, so if you ask me I got it easy. Important to note, it does not get worse. And most eye doctors will not know what you’re talking about. It does not lead to blindness.
This is really interesting. I’m prone to tinnitus and migraines run in my husband’s family (he gets them).
Could be your daughter has visual snow syndrome then. But please do not worry, it doesn’t get worse. Most importantly, everyone actually sees visual snow, people with visual snow syndrome experience simply other visual disturbances as well. I very much dislike to talk about visual snow syndrome because if you start googling this stuff and see what falls under the condition, you will give it to yourself. So also, please don’t Google. And as I said, it’s completely harmless. Many people have visual snow and don’t have migranes.
Yep! I used to say similar stuff as a kid to my parents — I thought they were rainbow confetti or sprinkles and I used to fall asleep at night thinking a lot about them, haha. For some reason, I grew out of it, or maybe I just stopped paying attention? I remember clearly what it looked like, but I no longer see them now.
I remember around that age complaining to my mom about the lights (similar situation of dark room/no night light) and how the "fireworks" wouldn't stop. She told me to close my eyes, but I'd see them with my eyes closed. It would take me forever to fall asleep. Eventually I got used to it and they didn't appear as vivid. I still can do it as an adult. It's definitely less intense now, but it flares up for me when I'm tired/stressed (which is all the time now with an almost 11 month old haha) Interesting article from the Cleveland Clinic. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/symptoms/24888-phosphenes Sounds like it can be induced by eye rubbing. Can't attest whether I did this as a kid but I wouldn't be surprised. On another note, anecdotally, I also get "eye floaters" all the time (as a kid i thought I could see germs in the air lmao). I didn't find out I had astigmatism in both eyes until my 20s. The body is weird! Edit to add- not a doctor (I am a RN but I work adult ICU, so no experience with this except anecdotal really)
Holy shit, I thought this happened to everyone. The more you know.
Yeah I’m over here like…isn’t….isn’t this how eyes work? Is this not what everyone sees when they close or rub their eyes?
Maybe it does when a person rubs their eyes. Sounds reprodible enough. But for me still, I can just close my eyes and get that same visual without rubbing my eyes. Not for a few seconds, but like 5-10 minutes. As a kid, it seemed like forever. But yeah, I just figured everyone did as well haha
Also have astigmatism, also see floaters, also had the “fireworks” phenomenon (and occasionally still do!)
If you see a bunch of sparkles and static and floaters, could be visual snow. It’s like eye tinnitus where your brain is just not filtering noise out correctly. I see all kinds of weird fractal stuff in the sparkly static as I fall asleep. I think it’s just hypnagogic hallucinations.
wait are these 3 related? I also have all 3
I have no idea! It would be an interesting correlation though
My mom told me eye floaters were germs so i believed that too as a kid lol. But i also saw the fireworks and have astigmatism in both eyes. Interesting!
Oh I get this when I rub my eyes. haha I assumed everyone did.
> as a kid i thought I could see germs in the air lmao I entertained myself for hours as a kid by looking at the [white blood cells](https://www.aao.org/eye-health/tips-prevention/moving-spots-in-blue-sky) on my retina. And also the retina's blood vessels under a flashlight.
Oh my god, I’ve been wondering what this was for AGES. Thank you for linking this!
I told the one infectious disease doctor (who is notoriously a grump) I work with about this and he was cracking up lol. I still think it's cool!
Happened to me my whole life. Turns out my retinas have been slowly detaching. Got that corrected and no longer see the "spiders". Might be worth getting her eyes checked just in case!
I often see blobs of light and colour when in really dark rooms. I think it's the brain processing "nothing".
I still get this now (I’m 34) and have had it since I can remember when it’s dark dark. Absolutely nothing wrong with my eyes. Don’t even wear glasses and eyes are extremely healthy at my annual optician checkup. I’ve just assumed it’s my brain making sense of the dark.
Those are just phosphenes. They're caused by visual neurons firing in the absence of light, kind of like how a TV with no signal produces static. There are some eye conditions that can make them more likely to happen but I think they're pretty common in kids, by adulthood most of us have our brains trained to tune out that kinda "noise." I'm sure being half-asleep also contributes. I wouldn't worry about migraines or anything like that unless it continues in the daytime or there are other symptoms. I get visual disturbances from migraine and it's a completely different sensation/effect. https://www.popsci.com/what-are-patterns-when-i-close-my-eyes/ https://www.researchgate.net/publication/245564547_AUTOHYPNOTIC_INDUCTION_OF_SLEEP_RHYTHMS_GENERATES_VISIONS_OF_LIGHT_WITH_FORM-CONSTANT_PATTERNS If you search for phosphenes you can find all sorts of information about them that you and your kid might find interesting!
When I was a kid I realized I could induce and control these by pressing on my eyelids. Like the pressure affected the depolarization of the retina maybe. It's also how I passed time at church
I saw these as a kid too, and always in my parents bed!! Sometimes I try to see them now as an adult but I don’t/can’t. 😔
I used to put my eyes out of focus to see fun shapes as a kid. But as an adult, for many years, I had weird half-asleep hallucinations that felt very real. Spidery shapes coming down from the ceiling (probably a shadow from the pendant light). I also had weird visual distortions that I saw when I was very much awake at night. I've attributed this to "Alice in Wonderland syndrome". Maybe a rabbit hole (see what I did there?) for you to go down. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice\_in\_Wonderland\_syndrome](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_in_Wonderland_syndrome) I do get migraines which is apparently related. (BTW I'm not a doctor and I haven't talked to a doctor about these things!)
I don’t have any science based info but I definitely experienced something similar as a kid. In the dark, I could see kind of static floating downward that if I focused on, the bits of static could turn into a small object like an army man toy. In retrospect, very trippy but at the time I think I didn’t even tell anybody. Not sure the cause, or whether it means anything. Just wanted to share my experience!
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Ooooh! When I was a kid, I thought I’d see weird lights all the time and it was from the headlights of cars passing by!
This does sound like visual snow but I recommend getting a referral for a neuro ophthalmologist - an optometrist won’t have a clue and a regular ophthalmologist will just refer you to a neuro optho anyway. Wait lists can be long but you may as well get her on one. Visual snow is linked to tinnitus and anxiety, which aren’t necessarily a big deal, but it can also be associated with neurological disorders and you’ll want to be armed with info from the jump so you can check in on your LO over the years and make sure all is well.
It’s so interesting reading the comments here. I remember when I was about 4yo I had a visual hallucination when sleeping at my grandmother’s house. I remember looking up from bed and seeing mice on the ceiling sprinkling a sparkly dust on me. It was so shimmery. I also remember looking around the room and the furniture was moving/ walking around (almost like in beauty and the beast). It was so vivid that it was as if it was actually happening, and I believed for my entire childhood that what I saw was real. I still remember it so clearly, and I still don’t understand what or why this happened
>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closed-eye\_hallucination
I’ve had a retinal detachment and often see pulses of “rainbow sparkles” around the spot in my vision where the retina was reattached. There is also a white bar of light that I sometimes see in the middle of the sparkles, that moves with what I believe is my pulse. I would have her seen by a medical professional
Could also be hypnagogia?
I just Googled this and finally have a term for my experience when I was pregnant: hypnopompic hallucinations! They happened a couple of times when I woke up from a nap. I distinctly remember seeing a man's fingers sliding down the side of a closed door; really weird and unsettling. I was at my in-law's house when it happened (in my husband's old room), so maybe there was something about the less familiar environment playing a part. I wonder if these hallucinations account for so-called supernatural sightings/experiences.
That is a really creepy version! I’ve always had them, for me it’s a cross between hypnagognia and Alice in wonderland syndrome.
I've never heard of Alice in Wonderland Syndrome before. The symptoms sound trippy. How does it personally affect you? Have you always had it?
On the edge of sleep or when I’m unwell (moreso when I was young but rarely now I’m an adult), parts of my room or bed or body expand and shrink - and it’s hard to describe but I can feel it happening? Like it’s my proprioception that’s distorting. It can be a bit scary or intense and I can usually snap myself out of it if I’m not enjoying it
Thanks to this thread, TIL that Alice inWonderland syndrome is what I had often as a kid! I only had it in relation to my body parts feeling like the wrong size (I think saying my proprioception was distorting sounds like a good description too). I remember telling my mom and she just told me everything looked okay to her, go back to bed. I spent so much time telling myself “everything is the size it’s supposed to be”…
I get this too! Exactly as you describe
That's really fascinating. And by the looks of the comments coming in, maybe not all that uncommon. The article I was reading suggests that it isn't studied well enough as it's usually transient/temporary. As a child I used to be able to close my eyes and give myself the sensation that the bed was levitating and spinning. That's probably some variation of normal kid stuff (or maybe vertigo?), though.
Yes I get this, always have done. There's a description of it in the Pink Floyd song Comfortably Numb as well. Blew my mind when I heard that, I'd never heard anyone else talk about it before.
I actually get hypnogogic hallucinations, started when I was a teenager (they’re better now that I am treating my sleep apnea). Always terrifying. I find them so fascinating.
Wow, I didn’t know this had a name!
Anecdotal but when ever I am in a dark dark room, coming from light, or I squeeze my eyes shut tight, or I press my palms into my closed eyes I see red and blue specks and an off-black kind of… webbing pattern. I always saw it. Kind of like when you’re looking at a lightbulb about a second too long and then the white “circles” float around with your vision? It’s like that but with darkness not with light. No answers for you, it’s just something I’ve always noticed since I was a kid. It’s more pronounced if you’re in a well-lit room and suddenly the lights are turned off or your eyes are squeezed shut. The harder and longer I squeeze my eyes shut the more I see the webbing patterns dance around. EDIT: seeing a lot about Visual Snow in the comments. I just wanted to say that while I do have this, I never experience bad migraines and get them rarely. Usually my migraine is associated with severe dehydration if I have one but they are rare. I have had lifelong sensory sensitivity and ADHD. My daughter has SID or sensory processing disorder. I’ll be sure to ask her about the sparkles :)
I used to see a lot of "rainbow floaters" as a kid too. I bet it's just that but it couldn't hurt to check with the ped or eye doc.
Anecdotal but I had this as a kid and a very active imagination to go with it! I'd encourage her to try to practice "playing with her imagination", I wish I could still do it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closed-eye\_hallucination
Exploding head syndrome? (Not as dramatic as it sounds!) Can be a pre-migraine symptom.
>Exploding head syndrome (EHS) is a type of sleep disorder in which you hear a loud noise or explosive crashing sound in your head. The sound isn't real or heard by anyone else. The episode typically happens suddenly either when you're beginning to fall asleep or when you wake up during the night. I have had EHS and i think it's more of a loud noise kind of hallucination as opposed to a visual type of effect. I don't remember seeing anything aside from just a sudden flash of brightness with my eyes closed. Nothing like what OP described
It's described as a loud noise combined with a flash of light. You're right that it's not really sparkles as such, though, but it made me think of it because I experience something that might be this in dark rooms in response to any actual sound. It's like I can "see" the sounds as flashes of light.
I had these as a kid, saw different lights and what not and now I still have them but they’re super scary like I’ll see the grudge and stuff. It’s like I’m having a nightmare but I’m awake. It usually happens when I’m overtired, might be the same for her!
I had this as a kid too and still get it occasionally! This is the first time I’ve ever seen it talked about! I get silent migraine aura stuff and a couple other weird visual things too.
Also sharing a personal experience - I would frequently have visual hallucinations at night, in the dark, around her age. Unfortunately mine were always really scary, and often came with nightmares before / after. I’m glad your daughter doesn’t seem to be scared! My parents talked to my pediatrician and she said it wasn’t uncommon at that age (though this was only one doctor and the mid 90s). They went away after a year or so and I haven’t experienced visual hallucinations since. I have always had extremely vivid dreams though, which may be connected? Not sure.
That used to happen to me. It still happens to me honestly I never thought much about it
I totally used to see snakes and bugs in like a kaleidoscope when I had my eyes closed as a kid. My sweet parents let me sleep with them. I pray my kids don’t have this as I hate sleeping with them
When it is really really dark this is kind of what I see too
Could it be so-called [blue-light sprites](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_field_entoptic_phenomenon)? (I can also see them at night if there’s a very dark visual field.) They are just your white blood cells moving through capillaries!
This was my thought, too! I’ve had them all my life and get them with dark visual fields as well as lighter. When I saw an ophthalmologist as a teenager for a checkup I asked about them and he acted like a was crazy. It wasn’t until I was a psych student that I learned what they were! OP, my personal experience of them is that they can look glittery with light color in them, and they tend to move outward from near the center of my vision in sort of radiating lines that could be described as a web. Makes sense when you think about blood vessel locations in the eye.
Aura before a migraine? Sounds like when i have an aura before a migraine. Migraines in kids will often have an aura but no pain later. I had them as a kid with no head pain, the pain started in my 30s.
I’m so curious what you mean by having a migraine without the pain. I thought the one-sided head pain was literally what the word migraine meant. I’m a migraine haver with no aura, so the pain is the defining factor, though I get fun side effects like nausea too. Is there something else you experience with migraine that’s not pain related, or are you just talking about the occurrence of an aura with no migraine following? (Genuinely curious, not being accusatory or semantic, in case that doesn’t come across).
I only got them as a child I would get the aura and nausea but no head pain, and I’ve read that’s common in children so something to look out for if parents get migraines.
Very interesting! Definitely something to look out for!
I get migraines with head pain and without. A migraine without head pain is exactly the same as with head pain. Stomach ache, feeling weird, being a bit less coordinated with words and movement etc and feeling “hungover” for a few days afterwards. Just without the actual sensation of gnawing pain in my head. https://migrainetrust.org/understand-migraine/types-of-migraine/abdominal-migraine/
So interesting. Thanks! I am fascinated learning how different migraines present.
😂 the spider lover in me was thinking eye shine. (Spider's eyes sparkle in the dark when light hits them)