Odd Perception of Lights after Dark

[momobop]

I am a 62-year-old female, a retired college professor. This question concerns the way in which I see lights at night. With my glasses on, the lights appear as starbursts. However, when I remove my glasses, the light morphs into a very large, perfect circle, with a black hole in the center. Furthermore, within the circle, the light is broken so that it somewhat resembles fractured lace. In addition, the circle moves by expanding and contracting. In this connection, it looks like a single-celled organism that one might see under a microscope, or--alternatively--a spider's web. Within this web, I can see small dark dots moving, like insects caught in this web.
I never take drugs, not even those sold over the counter. I have never had eye surgery. I have been extremely near-sighted since I was about six years old. I have no chronic illnesses and have never had any kind of surgery.

[Michael J Kutryb, MD]

You are very observant - yes myopic people can see lots of interesting things by taking off glasses and looking at a solitary point of light in distance and squinting eyes.  Before the image reaches the retinal photoreceptors it has to go through tear film with small floating oil and  mucin microdroplets, any possible corneal irregularies and corneal astigmatism and other higher and lower order abberations, through the aqueous humor, iris opening (pupil) and any possible other defects or damage to iris, lens which can have opacities (different types of cataracts), vitreous with possible floaters and vitreous strands --- then image the retinal vessels are actually in front of photoreceptors so light rays must pass them as well.  The VERY OBSERVANT individual can actually see the individual blood cells flowing through the retinal vessels around the macula if light just right, squinting, and just right amount of myopis (I have seen it!) - the phenomenon was described more than 150 years ago with beautiful medical drawings - so this is well know science.

Anyway - you have so many interesting observations - it's hard to know what are just normal things and what might be caused by astimatism, spherical abberration, cataract and floaters.  Best for  you to get complete dilated eye exam with ophthalmologist.  In meantime I will look for professor with the drawings I mentioned from the 1800's.

MJK MD

[momobop]

Many thanks for your reply. I would be interested in seeing those drawings from the 1800s. Indeed, I would love to be able to take a photograph of the strange light formation that I see without my glasses. If I were an artist, I could remove my glasses and produce a truly strange painting.