[babecakes]

When you're laying in bed at night, in a dark room, your eyes closed, and you cough pretty hard - what causes the bright white lights to happen behind your eyeballs? kind of like little lightening flashes.

I've just always wondered, maybe someone here knows.

[skykingismybaby1]

Aliens.

[janedoe726]

Zombies.

[alabama]

I don't know but I have a "floater" (vitreous gel) that cropped up just before this year's eye doc. appt. The first thing she asked me is if I ever had light flashes in the eye and/or showers or multiple floaters. I was to let her know ASAP if that happened because it could be bad. Please see the attached link and see an eye doctor:

http://www.allaboutvision.com/condit...potsfloats.htm

[babecakes]

It only happens when I cough - has for many yrs and both eyes do the same thing. Interesting I will do some research from this idea. thx It always helps to pick some brains here. Tons of life experience on this board!

and you other two aren't too far off either

[Adamantane]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phosphene

[babecakes]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phosphene

ding ding! Oh yeah they told me my children wouldn't be normal too!

[Snowflake]

They're called phosphenes and they're caused by the action of your cough causing you to momentarily cause your eyelids to shut tightly. Completely normal. It's the same thing that happens if you close your eyes and press on your eyelids - the funky lights you see then. The pressure on your retina from closing your eyelids tightly (and possibly from the cough itself) tricks your visual cortex into thinking you're seeing light when you aren't.

[babecakes]

See smart people on Coth. Thanks!! what a quick answer, now we all know some trivia.

[Adamantane]

Who told you that?

Perhaps they won't be -- who ever can say about these things? -- but not because of this

[Luseride]

As long as it is when you are having pressure on your eyes not a problem. If it starts to happen when your eyes are open then you need to see a doctor, it could be your retina.

I kept having them but my cornea doctor thought it was normal until I told him my students asked me what I was looking at all the time and I told them it was the faries.

He looked a little more and immediately sent me to the retina doctor who lasered the tear back together that day.

[danceronice]

I don't know but I have a "floater" (vitreous gel) that cropped up just before this year's eye doc. appt. The first thing she asked me is if I ever had light flashes in the eye and/or showers or multiple floaters. I was to let her know ASAP if that happened because it could be bad. Please see the attached link and see an eye doctor:

http://www.allaboutvision.com/condit...potsfloats.htm

Multiple floaters can be from having hit your head at some point in your life. And they can be really annoying. (Or they can be age-related. I'm not that old yet.)

Aura migraines are very much NOT fun, though they're not so much flashes as..wobbly halos? It's hard to describe.

[alabama]

Mine's just a (singular) floater. I'm, however, within the normal age range for one. I did hit my head really hard this past summer, though. The floater didn't show up 'til Nov.

I go to my local medical school's professors' eye practice so I'm being seen by the actual instructors/doctors, not the students. My Dr. did see the floater, gave me info to watch for and deemed it benign.

What mine looks like is a gnat right in front of my eye. And yes, REALLY annoying/distracting but otherwise just inconvenient.