This is the reason you still see colours with your eyes closed
Don't be alarmed, it's perfectly normal... and getting hit on the head or sneezing too hard can produce the same effect
HAVE you ever been about to head off into the land of nob when you noticed lights darting before your eyes – even though they are CLOSED and your bedroom pitch black?
It may seem odd to your drowsy mind but you’re not the only one who sees these them, and there’s a simple scientific explanation for why it happens.
The colours you see aren’t actually real – but the inside of your eyes are making you see the blobs and patterns of colours.
In the same way that fireflies and sea creatures can glow, the cells in our eyes produce light particles.
The visible spots on the back of your eyelids are called phosphenes, and most people think they are only activated when they are stimulated by light from outside.
But the truth is they are ALWAYS active, and randomly firing signals at each other.
When your eyes are open, the stuff you’re actually seeing drowns out the random colours.
But when you’re looking at a black canvas with your eyes shut, the colours become more visible.
And your eyes can’t tell the difference between lights from the outside world and those emitted by your atoms.
Istvan Bokkon, a Hungarian neuroscientist who works at the Vision Research Institute in Massachusetts, told Science Line: “We see biophotonic light inside our eyes in the same way we see photons from external light.”
The colours often pop up right after someone rubs their eyes – because the pressure produces more biophotons.
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Being hit on the head, standing up too fast, or sneezing REALLY hard can also produce the same effect.
As soon as your brain receives the information from the retina, it realises that it’s a load of rubbish – which is why you see colours and blobs, rather than defined shapes.