… because if you do, you might be reassured to know that such hallucinations are very common, benign, and very underreported, as 10-40 % of the elderly with bad eyesight have them.
These visions are know as Bonnet syndrome, and they are fascinating in origin.
I just read an fascinating article about the historic origin of the syndrome, how medics and philosophers have thought about the origin. Also, Bonnet syndrome is probably the chief cause of people seeing gnomes, and how cool is that!
Visions usually come at dusk, when everything is quiet. People with Bonnet syndrome usually live alone (less distractions) and are usually intelligent and introvert ( i.e. they have an active inner life to begin with). Couple such an active but understimulated visual brain with worsening eyesight, and one hypothesis supposes that the bored brain tells the eye to perceive meaningful patterns in meaningless visual static.
I don’t have Bonnet syndrome. But I wanted to share what I learnt about it here on the Dope. If you do have a loved one over 65 with bad eyesight, bring it up in conversation. The odds are 1 in 3, that you might be able to put their minds much more at ease with this knowledge.
I am 66 and have been experiencing some vision phenomena that I can not explain. I am not blind or going blind. I do wear progressives for presbyopia.
However when I wake from a nap and look up at the ceiling without my glasses I see things hanging from the ceiling. The ceiling is off white and the “things” are usually always a dark orange and look like long tendrils with a blob end. They look to be hanging very low as if they would touch my head if I stood up. Additionally sometimes I just see a clear membrane as if there was a layer of clear gelatin between me and the ceiling.
No TMI at all, Sveltington, on the contrary, thanks for volunteering your experience. Those do sound like Bonnet images. especially the fact that you have them when you look at a very unstimulating image (the white ceiling)
People with Bonnet-images can mostly make then disappear by closing their eyes or blinking. That suggests that the mechanics of the eye (like the pressure in the eyeball) have something to do with it as well. In that sense Bonnet images could be variations on the well known “eye floaters” but enhanced by the brain into a more elaborate image.
It will be reassuring to know that Bonnet images last, in most cases, less then a year, ( although rare cases have lasted five years) and then they just stop on their own accord . Some people even miss them.
Not sure whether what I see qualifies as bonnet syndrome.
I’m 72, and what I occasionally see is what I call “fireflies”. I see points of light that travel across my field of vision in complex trails. They never go in a straight line or gentle curve, but always travel in complex curves, from a simple sine wave to something looping. At times they look like little glowing sperm.
I’ve mentioned this to several doctors, including ophthalmologists, and no one’s ever heard of the phenomenon.
Years ago, I paid good money to acquire hallucinations, so they don’t scare me. I haven’t had any for a long time, or at least I think so. Sometimes, though, I see things on the news that can’t possibly be true.
Me too. I think of them as the golden bees. They just happen at the edges of my vision for about a minute. I assume it’s some migraine thing, although no headache is associated.
Some of what is being described here sounds like it might be floaters and flashers. These are typically benign and very common as one reaches a certain age, but they can be associated with vitreous detachment (think of your eyeball shedding its skin off the inner side of the back wall). This happened to me, and that detachment in itself is no big deal. In some cases, though, especially in people who are extremely nearsighted (like me), it can create a risk of retinal detachment. So if you are getting older and you think you’re seeing dangly or swirly things (particularly against a white background) or unexplained flashes of light, it might be worth visiting a retina specialist just to be safe.
I’ve got relatively normal vision with glasses, but I do sometimes have something that is similar. It looks more like a bit of static. It’s usually in lower light conditions, and usually when I don’t have my glasses on. Though one time I saw it with them on, while looking at this weird pile of rocks, out in bright daylight. All other times, adding a bit of extra light fixed the issue.
