Flickering in eye - optical migrane?

[TineBiene7]

About once a week, I have a vision disturbance, which starts as a tiny flickering dot that gets larger and larger and turns into an irregular type of circle.  The edges of the semi-circle are like jagged "saw-type" sharp edges in brilliant colors. At first it seemed that I was seeing this in both eyes, but recently I have been able to pin it down to my left eye only. When I close my eyes I can still see the visual disturbance, only the colors are more vibrant. The semi-circle gets larger and larger until it is out of my peripheral vision, which takes about 15 to 20 minutes.  During this episode, I am unable to focus on anything (can

[Netr13]

Perfect way to reduce the panic! Thanks all..strenuous exercise and or bending over seem to be triggers for my 69 yr old BF...he wasn't worried, but I was. 30 minutes, gone, no pain!

[garyp156]

Thank you so much and to all for posting.  I get the same thing.  I spend a lot of time on my computer.  I got mine today at lunch.  Been to an eye Dr. for it before (I've had 4) over a year) I'm a 59 yr old Male, and right handed.  She said it was fine and my eyes were healthy.
It starts out as a black dot then grows into a semi circle bigger, and bigger, with flickering zebra like stripes.  No headache or discomfort and takes about 1/2 hr to 45 minutes to go away.  It slides "off screen" and I don't see it again.  I can tell when it's coming because it feels like someone had shined a bright light in my eyes.
It doesn't matter if I close one eye or both, I can still see it.

I love all of you for your posting.  I feel much better and this confirms my Dr's diag.

Gary

[kgreen5318]

Thank you for this comforting answer.

[captainindia]

i am glad i am not the only one with this effect

[Spazza]

i get these - did go to the optomotrist to get it checked out but my eyes & sight are fine - am right handed & it starts on the right side then goes to the left & both eyes become affected - focus is terrible & frustrating - i also feels a difference in the right eye after 10 -15mins - it starts to feel heavy - best way to descibe it i spoz is feels like a lazy eye - i not a regular thing for me maybe every few months it happens - the only time i think it would really worry me would be if it happened while i was driving - hasnt yet (touch wood) & i hope it never does

[Krtyr]

I am a 58 yr old female and had this happen to me this morning.... a zig zag semi circle of bright, vibrating colors in my peripheral vision in my left eye. This has never happened to me before. I haven't done anything strenuous today (unless dumping out the cat liter box can be considered strenuous), and when it started I was reading on my Kindle Paper White. It as pulsating clear flashes that obstructed my vision in that eye. No pain was involved. Within minutes, it had evolved into the zig zag semi circle. VERY weird... I looked it up online, and found this forum, then I called my husband at work. Almost as soon as we got off the phone it went away. The whole episode lasted about 10 minutes. I seriously doubt it was caused by low  blood sugar, in my case, as I'd just eaten a whole, big chunk of praline candy (usually divided into 4's, but I ate the whole thing!), so my first thought (before I read this) was sugar overload! Whatever caused it, I hope it never happens again!

[Arides]

Hi, I'm just having my 4th episode, good to know what it's called and that it's fairly common and harmless.

Regarding the trigger, I have very similar experience. For me, I always got this blur when I overloaded my eyes the day before, and then again the day of the incident. Something like:
- Spending a day before a pc after being outside in bright sunlight w/o sun glasses the day before -> blur.
- Waking up in the middle of the night after a sunny day w/o sun glasses, turning the lights on, reading a bit on the pc, the going back to sleep. Next day full on staring into the pc screen. -> blur

I really think the trigger are just overloaded eyes, and what's making this difficult to spot is the fact that it takes two days in a row (or more?) to completely overload one's eyes to such extent. I'm just speculating here though. In any case, hope this helps.

[pressen]

A flashing or vibrating semi-circle of jagged, colorful lines, like the ones described here, interferes with my vision sometimes.  It's in the right eye and to the right and it doesn't matter if my eyes are closed or not.  These spells come in 15 to 20 minute lengths as I engage in normal everyday activities.  I had several "attacks" years ago following their start on the day of 911 (distress/stress?) and they disappeared within a few months.  I couldn't connect them with any particular behavior or activity.  I've had two recently with the last one showing up yesterday at lunch time. I can still read a newspaper or work on the PC, but they're annoying.  I've never had headaches in my life, and no vision problems according to my optometrist.  It was a comfort to find others describing a similar experience, and without any horror stories of losing vision, etc.. Has anyone ever had other images associated with the flashing?        

[extremeash]

I'm glad to see I'm not alone with this. My symptoms are somewhat different though. I see the exact same bright jagged lights in the corner of my eye that you described. Usually seems to be the left eye and bottom left corner. I had excellent vision all my life and that seems to be going down hill now (hard time seeing signs I should be able to read clearly). However, I have no vision loss. No black or empty spots. No headaches. No aura. Just this jagged light. I've been afraid to see the eye doctor because I don't want to need eye drops for the rest of my life (my mom has glaucoma) but I'm going to schedule something to make sure this isn't retinal detachment...... For a while now I've been seeing what I thought were floaters. But they are white... They seem more like flashes. Which I read are more serious than  floaters. Anyone here who has any flashes or loss of vision should see a doctor for sure!

[lalau9292]

I am very hypocondriac.  I am 22, and my symptoms are like black spots (like shadows of light) that create kind of irregular flashing patterns, like in a chess game. I especialy see it when my pressure is low or when I am very tired. It looks like an epileptic visual attack, and really scares me, but I have had it for one year or so and nothing happens.

[GrayDwarf]

Just experienced my first one of these and thankful to all those that posted before me. Mine looked like a bendy snake made up of flashing multi-colored triangles. Permanently stuck just to the right of my forward looking vision.

The flickering happened regardless of eyes closed or open.

When it first started 20 minutes ago, I was having a really hard time reading because I had to turn my head or wait a second to see the next word. Talk about scary.

My day was like this. Drove into work on a sunny day (hardly any direct sunlight) but had sun glasses on. Drive into a parking garage (that was dim but not dark), put on my 125 cheapo reading glasses and watched a 30 minute tutorial on HTML 5/Canvas on my mobile phablet device inside my truck. The device was propped on my steering wheel. The tutorial had very tiny text that I recall straining a few times to read the lines of code. This was nothing new for me. I did just start wearing reading glass a couple months ago. Anyway, after the tutorial, I left the truck and carred a semi-heavy box to my office which was just a couple elevator rides and very few steps. I did struggle to open a heavy security door with my hands full. I set down the box and logged into my computer. I leaned over to log into my second computer to kick off automation and then when I turned back to my main dev box, I noticed it. I thought it was a flickering sun spot and thought it was from reading in the dark or perhaps the sun sneaking in through my closed blinds but quickly realized it wasn't going away. I went and grabbed coffee and it stuck with me and didn't diminish. I came back to my office and started looking up info and landed here. While typing this, the problem has diminished to nearly nothing (about 30 minutes) just like everyone elses experience. Again, thank you so much for sharing your experiences. At my age (42), these types of events can be scary. Couple other quick things. My back is a little sore (bad computer posture all the time), and my neck has had chronic off and on pain for years after a car accident.

[SirHardo]

Well I'm am busy having these symptoms for the first time as i type this. In both eyes simultaneously, and has grown from taking up about 10% of my visual awareness to now about 50% in a space of a half an hour. No pain or discomfort whatsover. My beautiful rainbow shimmmering jagged eye-shaped anomolies are making 2D images almost appear 3D. The pattern here for most people seems that we all were staring at a contrasting electronic screen for an extended period. For me it was an X-Box game that had me riveted for 4 hours last night. My eyes felt dry when I went to sleep last night.

[philnoir]

I would think blood flow to the retina would be more important than blood pressure, but I don't really know much about the eye.

An opthamologist is a medical doctor trained in the anatomy and physiology of the eye, as well as eye diseases and their treatment, and is your best bet for getting to the bottom of this issue.

Good luck.

[sappshots]

I just had my second episode tonight, three months apart. Both were within 30 minutes of strenuous exercise, and with both I hydrated before, during and after the workout with water and vitamin water — I hope it doesn't contain aspartame.
After the workout, I went straight home, ate protein while watching TV. The small jagged circle, which had total fuzzy vision in the middle, slowly grew larger (then I could see fine through it) until it was gone within 30 minutes. No headache. Still interesting, and a bit disturbing. Beautiful, colorful shards.
Recently had eye checkup and was told my eyes are very healthy.
Think I'll go have an overdue checkup for general health because I wonder if blood pressure affects it.

[jesseritz]

I see an OD (optometrist) every year; known him for 35 years. He referred me to an eye MD (ophthalmologist) for detached vitreous (flashes); for the optical migraine he didn't refer me... we just talked about it. Keep in mind that he understands my general health. When I began getting optical migraines there wasn't the wealth of information (good and bad) on the internet. In the early 1990s there was no information about *optical* migraines. For ten years before that I searched chat rooms on Compuserve, the Source, and private dial up services (even ham and CB sites talked about other things). My point is: if you don't have a 35 year history with an OD, or don't know that there are a dozen specialties regarding the eye and don't know much about floaters (I mapped mine), glaucoma and cataracts, visit an eye doctor and establish a relationship.

[Ball123]

Visual phenomenon like this should get checked up properly. It is most likely some sort of migraine symptom but could potentially be very dangerous. Should be checked!

[nataliedawn68]

This site has helped me enormously - had my first one today. Was looking at a laptop screen, all the words starting to 'swim' around the page. Saw a zigzag pattern around a circular shape across everything I looked at. When I closed my eyes it was bright white and the zigzag was silvery and spinning around. Got really distressed and teary - very frightening experience.  Wore off after about 20 minutes and other than the worry had no other symptoms yet. Called my opticians who advised to go to A&E which I did. Had the back of my eye looked at and have a consult at hospital in 2 days. This has given me a much needed insight into what happened - thank you all for posting.

[nataliedawn68]

This site has helped me enormously - had my first one today. Was looking at a laptop screen, all the words starting to 'swim' around the page. Saw a zigzag pattern around a circular shape across everything I looked at. When I closed my eyes it was bright white and the zigzag was silvery and spinning around. Got really distressed and teary - very frightening experience.  Wore off after about 20 minutes and other than the worry had no other symptoms yet. Called my opticians who advised to go to A&E which I did. Had the back of my eye looked at and have a consult at hospital in 2 days. This has given me a much needed insight into what happened - thank you all for posting.

[bigbobh]

HI
Well I have been having these since I was in my 20's I am in my 70s now .  Used to be only once every year or so but I have had 3 in last month  so that has me a bit worried  possibly stress related not sure.  

[Gini_S]

All of you are talking about having the symptoms that I had since the age of 10.  My Opthamologist and I were talking about my history and I suddenly remembered that the original symptoms were severe cluster headaches, vision brown out, and fatigue.  My piano teacher noticed and asked my Mother, who had told me that I was "too young to have headaches".  I had macular edmas behind the eyes.  And, strange coincidence that they retreated and the other symptoms stopped when I changed schools... and no longer stopped by the 7/11 for Tab cola which had artificial sweetener.  Tab name was dropped and became Diet Coke.  
   I began drinking other Diet Colas around the time that Aspartame went on the market.  A few years later, gaining 100 lbs, the headaches started again, fibromyalgia, nerve pain in the extremities -- then I had 7 STROKES which took me off of everything for months - because I couldn't swallow and was tube fed.  
  Today - no fibromyalgia, rarely have headaches, but the circulation on the stroke side is awful and lower level to high level pain if I do not exercise, drink plenty of water, get massages, soak in Epson salt baths, and reverse the nerve damage with r-Alpha Lipoic Acid and Borage oil.  At night I use a roll on of CryoDerm gel if the pain if overwhelming.  Arnica gel + Peppermint lotion when I run out of that.

[melody1980]

i have the same thing,it all started about 2 weeks ago,i was sitting in front of the computer next minute my eyes started flashing,really bright like fire work in my eyes,next minute half of my left eye,just went black,i hold my hand right in front of my face and i look not see anything,now i keep getting them almost everyday for two weeks now,went to hospital,got a scan done of my head they could not find anything,they said i have sinus,my right side of the head was hurting as well as my shoulder and neck,my shoulder muscle felt so tight,i found out alcohol and stress and long hours in front of computer does trigger it.got my eyes check as well,my vision is good,dont need glasses,they thought it might be detached retine,so they send me to specialist,he checked and said no,but it is really worrying me,got an appointment with neurologist,hopefully they be able to tell me whats going on???

[RobbinBird]

Hi There - I am have this very thing as we speak.  I was so worried but thankful it's migraines.  I have been having them very frequently lately.  Mine is in my left eye and I am left handed. No correlation.

[SCPSOBG]

Just experienced this exact C shaped sawtooth blazing flashing light in my eye last night. Came on suddenly. Freaked me out!  A little blue at the bottom and top and a little red , but most was a most brilliant white, and  saw toothed.  Eyesight fuzzy.  I closed my eyes and tried to relax. The image began to fade and got so large that it went off screen (so to speak). After 30 minutes eyesight was OK again. Glad I found this posting! I thought I was in for it!

[berngirl]

I too have these episodes usually months apart but last week they came 3 days in a row around lunch time and lasted 20 minutes i see it like a far off tiny light and it grows to the size of my whole eye its brilliant white like a circular lightening bolt until it feels like it disappears behind my line of sight my head does not hurt just a funny numb sensation in my eye then like nothing ever happened i thought i was going nuts and it sounds crazy trying to tell people about it.