This is why you sometimes see patterns when you close your eyes
Britt Jones
Featured Image Credit: Getty Stock
When you close your eyes, do you see anything odd? Maybe shapes, colors or people?
It could be explained by science, and even though it’s not actually all that uncommon, it’s unlikely most people know what causes it.
Patterns, bright spots, and other anomalies have been reported by people who close their eyes and see something other than pure darkness.
While most people enjoy pure nothingness when their peepers rest, others go on to have a sensory experience that might be similar to looking through a kaleidoscope, or swirling vortex.
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Of course, these things could be related to underlying medical conditions, but if this is the only thing that’s going on, it could be explained by something else. Something harmless.
Specifically, closed eye hallucinations.
According to Ubie Health, if this happens more often before you go to sleep, it could be a particular type of closed eye hallucination known as hypnagogic hallucination.
The health practice revealed on its website that seeing things like ‘swirling colors, grids, or geometric shapes as you drift off is usually a normal hypnagogic hallucination’ and is caused by the visual cortex within the eye staying active while your mind slips off to Lalaland.
Or phosphenes.
The Cleveland Clinic explains that phosphenes cause ‘flashes of light with or without structure that you see when there isn’t an actual source of light entering into your eye.’
This could account for ransom pixels, or flashes of light or darkness behind your eyelids.
The Vision Eye Institute explains that phosphenes can be heightened by ‘everyday stimuli, such as an intense sneeze, hearty laughter, coughing, blowing your nose or standing up too quickly’.
Or even applying light pressure on the eyelids when closed.
Some other common types of closed-eye hallucination symptoms, per Healthline, include seeing random objects.
But it could also be a sign of related medical conditions such as hyponatremia, a condition of extremely low blood sodium levels, and is a medical emergency that also comes with confusion, weakness, and seizures.
Or, it could be Charles Bonnet syndrome, which is caused by vision loss from macular degeneration in older adults, per the Clinic.
The hallucinations in this case are phantom visions but usually happen when the eyes are open, with the UK’s NHS stating a person with this condition might see patterns such as shapes or lines, of people, animals, objects or places, things that are moving or still, be it in black and white or color.
The visions can also happen suddenly, last for a few minutes or several hours.