Seeing Things: Visual Disturbances We All Experience 

When I was a kid, I'd spend a lot time covering my eyes with my hands and enjoying the phosphene show

Also, i've never seen people portray visual snow and floaters this well. Very impressive. However, to most people suffering from visual snow, it's colourless.

Me to a doctor: I keep seeing spots before my eyes. Doctor: Have you seen an optician? Me: No, only spots.

Finally having the static in my vision explained somewhat makes me feel better

Important to note: If you suddenly see a lot of floaters that even impede your vision, visit a doctor immediately! This can mean your retina has partially teared or that the membrane containing the fluid in your eyeball (the vitreous) has come loose. It happened to me late last year, but I waited for four days before I visited a doctor since I figured it was just exhaustion. Because of that, I have permanently blurred vision with hardly any colour saturation in my left eye.

It has been years trying to explain people I see some colorful, fuzzy dots everywhere when there isn't much light and I'm borderline blind in those places while my friends and family can see like normal, several visits to different oculists and seemingly *NONE* of them had an idea that visual snow existed, so every time I went back home with a "your eyes are fine" feeling terrible because I knew I can't see anything except for those dots when there's low light. RU-vid recommended this video over 3 years later, but Tom and Inés, I'm so, so thankful... Thanks.

Visual snow - it's the Matrix having to drop back to 480P for a bit

The effects were dead on! Especially the floaters. Great vid! Subbed to Draw Curiosity!

As a child trying to sleep I used to close my eyes hard and enjoy what I now know are phosphenes.

Ahh great video! I have a floater in my left eye, I've actually named it Dave and sometimes talk to him whilst in the bath

So it turns out my eyes are pretty much normal? Well, that's a relief.

ines: these can appear when rubbing your eyes eyes: please no im an essential part of your perception and am extremely gentl- me: 👁️🤛hahah eyes go squish squish

I feel like a part of me has been completed. When I was little I used to think that I was the only one that saw these. Wow! Now I can think of other stuff.

me closing my eyes wanting to sleep: the yellow Phosphene ring: welcome back

she’s so into explaining all this, i love her passion ♡

I'm honoured to be this week's guest host on Tom's channel! If you enjoyed this video and want to watch more like this, I create frequent content on Draw Curiosity on the quirks and fun bits of science - it'll be great to see you there! :) ~Inés ... (also, sorry about the t-shirt - but crocodiles were just way cooler)

I found it really hard to articulate eye floaters as a child. My parents thought that I had some kind of problem with my eyes. Then VSauce finally defined them and my life changed forever.

My whole life I never encountered someone who experiences this Visual Snow thing. I see it all the time and no one knows what I mean when I try to describe it. Good to know that its a real thing.

And this is the moment when you realize that... your eyes are not fu**ed up! what a relief :'D

For years I thought I was the only one. 'visual snow' was terrifying as a child and still confuses me to this day. I'm glad I'm not alone! 😅

That is a huge braid so cool!

Anybody else been getting anxious about visual snow lately? This video has helped to calm me down quite a lot! Thank you.

Can we just take a moment to appreciate how sublime that background music is?

Glad to learn that "Visual Snow" is common- I've noticed it for years now and have always wondered if something might be a bit off with my vision.

Visual snow is so annoying when your trying to look at stars

This is spot on. I’ve had all of these for years, and thought I used to think I had serious problems. Most people I talked to had no clue what I was experiencing, so this is comforting hearing/ seeing this analysis so accurate.

Still doesn’t explain the voices tho

Awesome, I've been trying to explain about seeing visual snow to people for ages and not been able to describe it well, this helps a load.

We don't accept this video. Only red shirts allowed!

Great! Now I can’t unsee my visual snow

I use to trip out on the phosphenes in my eyes when I was younger. I thought it was badass

Well done Inés, and thanks Tom for letting the four of us run wild on your channel. Hopefully we haven't caused too much mess and destruction ;)

Not gonna lie whoever did the animations for these visual disturbances are spot on! Its one of those things you can't describe to others but this illustrates it perfectly!

Thank you!!!! 43 years dealing with those and never a clear explanation.

Ahh, phosphenes explain why when I close my eyes, it's never pitch black, it's always red or green and everywhere in between in various places in my field of vision. I have always wondered about that!

What about everytime I close my eyes and I see my ex's face? Is that a visual disturbance or is it just emotional baggage? :(

I remember that when I was younger I saw visual snow VERY strongly, and I thought it was some type of magic shield that always surrounded me

Here's a cool fact that wasn't mentioned in the video: "Floaters are believed to be the remnants of the hyaloid artery. It’s an artery which nourished parts of your eye during fetal development. As you matured in the womb, the artery eventually withered away. While it was active and doing its job, the artery floated around in your vitreous humor, which is the fluid that fills your eyeball behind the lens. It ran from the lens in your eye to the other end where the optic nerve comes in. After the third month of fetal development, it began to atrophy. Around the 7th month, the blood stopped flowing through the artery and it slowly disintegrated. Most of the little bits of debris were evacuated by the time you were born, but tiny amounts of it still remain in your vitreous humor and will stay with you for the rest of your life." So what you're seeing is the remnants of the pre-birth construction scaffolding of your eye.

You missed when an imprint of an image (e.g. a source of light) is retained briefly when you look away or close your eyes. Edit: Apparently its called an after image

This ladys hair is insanely thick, it's crazy.

This video was not just interesting, it was useful. It absolutely perfectly described and pictured the floaters I experience. Knowing what causes them, and that they are benign, has helped me out. Thanks very much for that

I kind of have a fixation on floaters (which is probably anxiety-induced, but we don't have to dive into it), and seeing this from Tom's channel helped me feel a bit better about them.

Plot twist: Tom goes missing due to being knocked off the ship by a flying penguin... Many questions were then asked.

I wondered about the purple/green phosphenes for years! And now I can explain it accurately!

Awesome. I experience all of the visual disturbances mentioned, and I have always wanted to know what they were and why they occur. The visual examples given really helped me to know that you were talking about the exact same things that I was experiencing. No one else, including doctors, ever had an explanation for it. So, thank you!

Visual snow is so annoying, imagine what vision would be like without it.

Talk about saving the best for last. It's not often that a YT video teaches me something completely new.

This answered literally the four biggest questions I've had since I was 4.

Excellent video! Very well presented and interesting subject matter - I think you have comforted many people who have wondered about this but not properly understood it. Thank you! :)

This is actually really helpful. I never realized visual snow was so normal

I've seen visual snow maybe a couple of times in my life and I think it has been related to adrenaline or high blood pressure. I haven't noticed the Blue Entoptic Phenomenon ever but I'll try to notice it in the future. One thing that could have been included in this video is star bursts - we don't see bright pinpoint like light sources in dark environments when the pupil is big enough and the small inaccuracies in the eye start to manifest itself. For me, this is easiest to see with bright red LEDs because those allow the pupil to stay fully dilated in otherwise dark environment.

I could listen to her voice with that music all day

This is the video that I never knew I needed

Visual snow gets worse for me when I'm feeling anxious.

Props to Tom for spotlighting these smaller channels whilst he's away. Nice to find good new content you might otherwise not have seen.

She has huge braids.

"Which you can see in the grainy texture around me" Me watching at 144p: "Ah yes, the grainy texture around you..."

How can this video have 73 thumbs down? It was well produced, the information is relevant to pretty much all of us, the presenter seems nice and well articulated. What else could be 'wrong' ??

With the "Visual Snow" I have always imagined that it's very similar to the effects seen with cameras discussed in the video. It looks quite similar, and seems to occur under the same conditions, in particular low light. I would thus speculate that, given these similarities, the cause is basically the same: Signal to Noise ratio. Both cameras and our eyes have photoreceptors that convert light to an electronic signal, and with such there is bound to be a certain amount of "noise" or stray electrical signals. Under normal conditions this is negligible, but when the intended "signal" - in both cases that from light hitting the photoreceptors - is very weak, the signal-to-noise ratio decreases and the "noise" becomes perceptible in relation to the signal. In my own case I've also noticed I experience more of the "snow" when I'm extremely tired or drowsy, I would imagine that the more poorly functioning brain produces more "noise" and a weaker "signal" than when everything's running properly.

just learned the word for the static I see! I see it when I look at most surfaces. the less texture there is, the more I see it. I don’t know what flat colors exactly look like anymore but oh well :’)

I've had floaters since I was a kid, but didn't know what they were called until I was in my twenties. But I'm not sure if I've seen visual snow or not.

Wow, this was very descriptive! I never knew there was a name for "visual snow".

OMG yes! Visual snow - so nice to finally know the name for it!

wow, I love learning this kind of thing. Side note, her voice is just gorgeous.

Floaters are also found in the bathroom.

When I was a kid, and very bored at some point, I put two keyfob 12V batteries in series(24V) and bite it with my teeth, gave a mild shock and saw some white flashes.

holly crap. the blue entopic phenomenon made me think i was insane. thank you so much. i have the snow too.

Thank you for this so much, thought I had developed HPPD. Just my anxiety again...

I really enjoyed watching this presenter, very well spoken and engaging with hand gestures

This video is so helpful omg especially the visual snow i was so confused about that

I played a Minecraft adventure map years ago with this music. It's making me super nostalgic

at least i know its "normal?" to have visual snow. when i was younger i did not have any visual snow. i used to think my eyes were mediocre until my eyes deteriorated to average vision.. when thinking back i had extremely good night vision and i thought everyone did. i could walk at night through the forest with just the moon light and i was able to see everything sharp and clear.

Plot twist: Tom got eaten by a polar bear, and the “Tom” we see in the videos after this is actually just a stunt double.

Omg, that braid Also, that voice

Interesting note on "Visual Snow"... I've noticed it since I was a child, especially in the dark. I've recently begun taking the supplement GABA and I swear, the static/snow is "smoother" and less pronounced.

Thanks Inés, nicely done. My favorite is the blue sky entopic phenomenon, on a nice sunny day I love to pick a bright blue patch of sky and watch those (that I now know to be) white blood cells darting about. Small pleasures!

Floaters look like single/multiple cell organisms to me...

Visual snow is the best, I remember seeing them a lot during black outs. Sometimes, instead of grainy things, I see colourful lines and I like to track their movement and sometimes they blow up like fireworks. It might be because I was a kid back then but they were fun to watch.

I had no idea that everyone has visual snow to some extent, that makes me feel a lot less anxious about it!

Finally I know the answers to everything I never really wanted the answer to but kind of wondered about.

I've seen visual snow a few times and always wondered what it was called. Thank you!

*WOULD YOU BE INTERESTED IN A TRADE AGREEMENT WITH ENGLAND?*

Great video! Will be using this in my ophthalmologic training. - Dr. Rings, Ophthalmologist, US Navy

Been seeing visual snow whenever I gaze at a mottled surface, thanks for naming it

I get floaters, I have several, but they are only visible if I defocus my eyes in a certain way. I also have the blood cell things. And I get really serious visual snow, it’s like really serious film grain. But, it can also be coloured, like bad analogue video noise. I also experience something, which as far as I know, is unique to me. Basically, it’s flickering, like an old CRT, but slower. The flicker happens around 20 times per second. If I look at something and focus on it without moving my vision, it will start to flicker. If I look at something and focus on it, and then move the object or quickly move my eyes out of the way, there’ll be a flickering afterimage for several seconds. Sometimes, everything but the center of my vision will flicker, especially in darkness. I believe I developed this effect after large amounts of exposure to 50hz flicker due to my use of a CRT TV & monitor, in conjunction with flicker free modern displays. The combination of the two technologies leads to increased flicker perception when dealing with flickering things, and I believe I’ve started noticing flicker in my eyes as a result.

Very cool!I have Charles Bonnet Syndrome, which means I constantly see faint geometric patterns overlaid on everything. I've had it since I was small and I used to describe it as looking down a kaleidoscope all the time (although 7 year old me was inaccurate, as the patterns aren't symmetrical).

I’m so glad this video mentioned the snow/static cause I’ve tried looking it up before and couldn’t find anything

I finally can stop having anxiety about the visual snow now knowing that everyone has it to some degree

Whenever I have those floaters, they're always dropping from top to bottom across my visual perception. And if I blink, the old ones disappear and new ones appear. I've always just assumed it's dry spots or something like how the liquid on my corneas drains away.

This video is so helpful I find looking at the sky kind of worrying because of the floaters and "sparkles" also my night vision is definitely snowy. Now my mind is eased. Was going to bring it up with my optometrist and was kinda dreading what they may say

This... was an amazingly informative vid. I've always wondered what I'm seeing. I'm totally sharing this with people. Thank you so much!

NOTE: If floaters become larger and more visible, you might have a problem with the Vitreous body in your eye. In my personal experience, it can lead to retinal detachment. If in doubt, contact your medical physician to get it checked. I didn't and payed with part of my eyesight.

This is one of the best videos on RU-vid. Period. When I tried to google it I got everything from "Go see the doctor or you'll be blind" to "Go see the doctor or you'll be dead".

You're really good at communicating with your hands!

I have Irlen syndrome so I see these things more than most other people I also have other visual disturbances that others do not. E.g rivers along the page, text moving and shaking, patterns moving, text jumping off the page. So it makes reading difficult it also means that I see colour differently. It also means I have attention issues and emotional issues.

Thank you, Tom, for recommending Inéz's channel.

This explains a couple burning questions I've had for years....

i wish she would have talk about eye migraines the stuff you see with those are bizarre, like a hole was ripped though spacetime

Interesting - thanks. I get the phosphenes periodically when meditating and sometimes the other ones during and after swimming in cold water. When it looks like it's snowing or raining but in fact it isn't raining at all that's a good time to swim back to the beach, get out and warm up.

This is the only source I could find that says that everyone experiences eye snow... everything else says it's a rare condition?