In 2009 I began to experience lightning-like streaks in my vision, sometimes when I opened my eyes and turned my head to look at my alarm clock.
One morning, after I had been seeing these streaks for many months, I was jerked awake by a flash that seemed like carnivorous animal leaping out of the darkness.
I awoke sweating and with my heart pounding. I never saw the lightning streaks again. Instead I would sometimes see a series of groups of bright curves which formed a trail across my vision.
According to Verhoeff①, “…certain motions of the eye no doubt cause the shrunken vitreous to strike the peripheral retina and thus give rise to the sensation of a lightning streak.” However, I was raising and turning my head fairly smoothly so there would not have been a force sufficient to affect my retina.
When I close my eyes in fairly low light I
A final example for those who still maintain that the flashes are caused by pressure wayes on the retina.
| ① | F.H. Verhoeff M.D. - Moore's Subjective “Lightning Streaks”. American Journal of Ophthalmology Volume 25, Issue 3, March 1942, Pages 265-268. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0002939442911863 |
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