You lie down in bed, crawl under the covers, and close your eyes, ready to drift into slumber. But suddenly, instead of pure darkness, you see colorful swirling patterns, as if you are looking through a kaleidoscope or watching a scene from Disney’s Fantasia.
A Common Phenomenon
But you are not alone in experiencing this. Many people have shared their frightening experiences on social media after encountering similar symptoms.
You can see colorful patterns when you close your eyes. (Illustrative image).
One user on platform X commented: “Have you ever experienced the strange phenomenon of seeing colorful patterns when you close your eyes? Please tell me my eyes are fine.“
“I have! It’s really annoying when I’m trying to sleep,” another user replied.
A third user remarked: “Exactly!! It’s like a kaleidoscope.”
And a scientist has revealed the reason behind this phenomenon.
Symptoms
In response to the social media inquiries, Associate Professor at Queensland University of Technology, Katrina Schmid, reassured that this experience is “completely normal.”
She explained that there are “several different situations that can cause you to see colors when you close your eyes,” the first being exposure to daylight or lying under a light source…
Professor Schmid continued: “Some light can still pass through your closed eyelids. Therefore, you may see a dark red color because the eyelids are rich in blood vessels, and this is the light that has the color of blood passing through.”
However, the second scenario is the most common cause of swirling patterns, colors, and distinctive designs when we close our eyes in darkness.
The professor explained that she herself has experienced patterns including “dots and rays of light” when she first closed her eyes in the dark, which then escalated to “swirls and waves of colored dots” as she remained in the darkness longer.
Associate Professor Katrina Schmid from Queensland University of Technology.
Causes
But why does this phenomenon exist? The term is called “phosphenes,” a normal part of how our eyes function and is “the sensation of light not actually caused by light.”
Professor Schmid stated: “Our eyes do not ‘turn off’ in the dark but instead generate very weak internal signals that mimic light. These signals are continuously produced by the cells at the back of your eyes.
The swirls and waves we see are generated by changes in the activity of these cells. The ‘bright’ spots can have color because the cells in your eyes that detect color also exhibit this activity.
These signals are transmitted to the brain, which interprets this random activity. Your brain does not realize that these signals are not generated by actual light, so we think we are seeing colored light and patterns that are not there. It is a kind of illusion!
Overall, such illusions are completely harmless; however, if your illusions are “much clearer” and “the light patterns become much more noticeable or last longer,” that may be a sign you should consult an eye doctor.
