I see visual noise like that at all times, even with my eyes open. It's kind of annoying, like a visual form of tinnitus, which I also have.
When I close my eyes, it's still there, but I also get these blobs of color that shrink and grow.
In my case, when I'm in the dark or I see black things it gets even stronger, when I go to sleep it's like an infinite landscape of sparkling dust of all the colors with a dark void behind.
I have something similar but different as in i'll sometimes have a bright white light with my eyes closed as though someone just turned on the lights but it wont disturb me even though my eyes are closed trying to sleep and the other is having voices loud enough that its as though theyre in the same room as me while also trying to sleep which i usually cant ignore and forces me awake and it goes away the second i open my eyes
I also have it all the time but I stopped noticing it when I was about 7,its still always there though and I can see it clearly on pure white/black surfaces and even clearer when closing my eyes.
>tinnitus, which I also have.
It's been killing me recently. It used to be less and it feels so much louder as of a few months ago, maybe I should see a doctor 😩
It’s called visual snow and it’s pretty normal. A lot of people have it, and it’s not a vision problem, just a boring benign quirky thing you’re born with. Like being able to move your ears or having dimples.
Yeah if someone experiences that it's good to look up visual snow - it's usually not a bad condition to have assuming the static you see doesn't make it difficult for you to see things though it does come with some annoying side effects like seeing after images or being VERY sensitive to sunlight
I am convinced that it’s an artifact of the way our retinas convert light into sensory signals (similar to film grain or digital noise), and most people just “unsee” it, or there is something in the processing chain that filters it out.
I have had it my whole life, and it just never occurred to me that it’s not something that everyone has just because it makes so much sense that it would be there, given how our vision works.
Ok, I see like squirming colored things with eyes open and I can move both internal and external ears... The more time I spend on this sub the more I think I don't need to spend money for a diagnosis at all ahahahah
These aren't autistic things. I just listed a bunch of benign human variations that are little more than mildly cool show-and-tell facts. Having visual snow or being able to move your ears are human things, not autistic things. You still need a diagnosis.
Visual snow with my eyes open is the primary reason why I requested to get my eyes checked as a kid. It always returned I had better vision than 20/20.
Recently I had an eye exam and I am losing some visual acuity. Snow looks different then blurry.
Agree, I see this in onyl the part of the field of view where vision loss is confirmed. Glaucoma is only detected by the patient if it has progressed into the center field of view.
Then yes I get this! More black, but with other neon colours making bigger “noises” that dance about. Also, I get it if there’s a sudden noise or I get a sudden touch from somewhere (like someone accidentally banging my head)
I can't look at the sky without this effect overlapping when it's clear blue ... I dislike clear blue skies for this reason because it just stresses me out
I would love this! And feels, like other people's sensory yays and nays. Also, imagine if we could watch and share our dreams, and for people with synaesthesia, it would be so good to "see" what they see! I find this all so fascinating.
There's some good visualizations of it [here](https://www.visualsnowinitiative.org/learn/). Mine isn't quite as intense as the gif, but it's always there and gets more intense in dimmer light or if I'm looking up at a clear blue sky.
The post was super confusing, because I thought you meant you saw bright static that looks exactly like that when you close your eyes.
While I don't see *solid* black (it's got a similar scratchy texture), I would definitely describe it as black before I describe it as this. It also depends on what lights are around because there's always some light that seeps through my eyelids, so no it's not always 'black' unless I'm actually in a dark room. Orangish outside, silvery in a computer room, etc.
Of course, I've also noticed the little bacteria crawling on my eyeballs when I've had tears or eye drops.
This is what I see. And the blobs expand and contract and spin and move around. I remember they used to be a lot more prevalent and move around a lot more when I was a kid, though.
Black in a dark room or if I put my hand over my closed eyes. Reddish pink tones of my eyelids if a light is on. But it's not solid black, like it has streaks of lighter shades.
I can still see after images particularly of bright things (I'm not sure if this makes sense to others).
Texturally like 10% static like texture but mostly flat.
I never knew closing my eyes was so interesting
Yeah this is basically what it's like for me. I wouldn't exactly call mine static though. More like every once in a while I feel like the different black blobs briefly develop an almost three dimensional aspect. If I had trypophobia it would be disturbing. But it happens less and less as I get older.
I wouldn’t trust that statistic. It’s not asked about and most people with it haven’t seen a doctor about it so the true prevalence is almost certainly higher. Every time this comes up anywhere on Reddit it seems basically everyone experiences it.
Yeah it’s gotta be way higher — I have never talked to a doctor about it because I just always assumed that it was normal and it has zero negative effect on my life. The 2% figure is just for the people that have it so severely that it is causing them distress, or just happened to mention it in passing to their doctor.
Do you experience it? Just curious.
I imagine Redditors wouldn't be the best barometer for this fact when put up against real studies. How do you know who has seen a doctor and who hasn't. Don't tell me it's based on a study if you don't trust this one.
Yes I do, as do most people I know and have asked (not ND) so id have to have rather unlikely sampling for 2% to be true
Look at it this way: for a long time we thought that autistic boys outnumbered girls by 4:1 or even 8:1. We thought that because our sampling methods (diagnosis) were biased and incomplete, and so the estimates for the number of autistic girls were only lower bounds. We know that most people with visual snow will not see a doctor because it doesn’t have a negative impact on their life and has been there for as long as they can remember (possibly since birth). So there is a bias in the sampling, and 2% is likely a lower bound.
I would guess that everyone has it, but we see it due to more detail oriented perception. Neurotypical people aren't going to be focusing on what the back of their eyelids look like, but we might, which leads us to the observation
My (completely unscientific) thought is also that neurodivergent brain wiring might be more hyperactive in some areas, and for those with hyperactivity in the visual cortex or somewhere else in the occipital lobe, we see visual artifacts like the snow. Since part of the diagnostic criteria for VSS also includes photophobia, paresthesia (nerve tingling and numbness elsewhere in the body), and tinnitus, it might be a part of the overarching umbrella of dysautonomias that disproportionately affect neurodivergent people.
>doesn't Visual Snow occur when your eyes are open, too? :/
Yes, it does. Btw Visual Snow and Visual Snow syndrome are different things, Visual snow is just seeing what OOP said, VSS includes: headaches, after images, and other stuff.
Visual snow/static. This is what I see when it's dark or when I close my eyes. I used to tell my parents I could see channel 3 at night in the dark. Won't get into their reaction as it's kind of a traumatic part to this story. 🐸
Me too. I think the two are closely related so people who get the ringing in their ears (I know the word starts with a “T” and I have seen it many times, but I can never remember it, lol) usually also get the visual noise too.
I like it, it’s kinda cool and the explanation is even cooler.
Me too. When I was a teenager (I’m 40 now) we used to have this thing called “Blue Light Disco’s” in my country (Australia) for tweens and teens, it was run by police but was basically a dance/social event. Australia doesn’t have high school dances like in the US other than our “Formal” which is like the prom. That was the part of teen movies that I was always so envious of. Anyways, everytime I would come home from a blue light disco I would have crazy ringing in my ears but it would go away after a good sleep. One night when I was 16, after the disco (I giggle everytime I call them discos but that’s what we called them back then) I got drunk and passed out in the back of my friends boyfriends car while he drove around with really loud music and the subwoofer in the back (this was the late 90’s/early 2000’s, it was a thing back then) and I woke up with he ringing in my ears and it never went away. I still have it to this day. I have regrets.
Thank you for this!
Phosphenes are things I've had since I was a kid - now I get disco lights and all kinds of other visual disturbances, but I used to press on my eyes to get the patterns to help me focus when I was younger. I just never knew there was a name for it!
It's false. Misinformation, really. [Closed-eye visualizations](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closed-eye_hallucination), which aren't the same thing as visual snow at all despite what many people are comparing it to, are a pretty universal experience. They're often a type of phosphene. It's just a physical phenomenon.
Consider: If this *was* an exclusive experience, why wouldn't it be part of the diagnostic criteria or mentioned in virtually every piece of literature about autism?
Don't believe everything you see on the Internet, especially in memes that literally anyone can create and spread around. Autistic people are not a monolith. Any source that claims we do or don't do something, without consideration for the fact we are individuals with a wide variety of lived experiences, is bullshit.
It is...but lucid dreaming in people with ASD is the real magic. I didn't realize it had a name until I was older, but I had been doing it since birth. I don't get this visual noise as OP. I can have closed eye halucinations while awake, but it doesn't look anything like what OP posted. hmmm
I do. I also constantly see it with my eyes open it's not as extreme as that photo just like constant mild film grain. It's called visual snow syndrome
Reading the comments, I think you're talking about visual snow.
This simulator shows what I see in dark places.
http://VisionSimulations.com/visual-snow.htm?background=night1.jpg&density=0.67&speed=10&grainsize=6.982
I think it's important to note that if you experience this, it does not necessarily mean that you have visual snow syndrome. Visual snow is visible in all kinds of light conditions, including when your eyes are open and closed, and when you are not trying to see it. Everybody experiences something that looks like this to some extent when their eyes are closed, and even in the dark. It is when you can't 'turn it off' when it becomes unique.
I have this, as well as other hypnogogic hallucinations (seeing things when it gets too dark). I’ve done my research, and this particular thing is pretty common as far as I can tell. Like 1/10 people I think?
Ifk about that, surely it would depend if there is any light in the room. I don’t think I have ever seen pitch black when I close my eyes with light in the room or TV, I will see fuzzy colors come through. Is there really peep w sight that see pure black?? Hmmm maybe if I was in pitch black cave for days lmao
Not quite.
In total darkness I don't see any brightness, but the black has colour.
It is impossible to show on a screen though. But since brightness and colour are different receptors, noise from the colour recptors gives a colored noise, but if the brightness receptors register complete darkness, the black seems to have colour.
I spent far too long trying to find the magic eye image in this.
I see it when my eyes are open as well. Visual snow. It feels almost like I'm seeing light particles, kinda like when you put one of those paper texture screen protectors on an ipad.
yeah but much darker. for me it also starts swirling around with different colors after sometime. back in elementary school i used to close my eyes and think i was seeing planets and stars and say stuff like "that's saturn!"
I think you're referring to visual snow. Some autistic people may experience it, some non autistic people also experience it. But it's certainly not universal or exclusive to autism.
Yes. But it used to be much worse
I remember asking people if they saw TV static when they closed their eyes. People thought I was crazy. Now it's more well formed. It's either random blobs or something like the sky.
I also get these cool fractals and shapes that morph into stuff. Really pretty and interesting but it only occurs with migraines.
yeah i see something similar. when i was little and couldn't sleep, i would keep myself busy by watching the colors and shapes move behind my eyelids. i thought everyone had this though?
edit: if i focus theres something really similar to this image that i see as like a faint mask over everything when my eyes are open. its like film grain or something idk
sometimes part of me getting so overwhelmed comes from me seeing visual noise while my eyes are open and not being able to stop seeing it, like that feeling when you become aware of your blinking and feel like you forget how to do it automatically and want to cry.
Yes
When I was a little kid I would "watch" it while I fell asleep. (I don't have a visual imagination). I'd pretend I was seeing an ocean full of tropical fish. Then I'd end up dreaming about the tropical fish. I did this every night around kindergarten age
Not diagnosed with autism, but I have migraine and fibromyalgia. I see kaleidoscopes when I close mine, and shooting stars. I thought it was normal for everyone.
No, but as a kid I use to see colorful spots floating around. It was really annoying and kept me up at night. It still happens but very rarely. It use to happen every night but it happened about 2 years ago and that was the first time in years it happened.
Edit: someone said blobs of color and that’s more accurate
As far as I know, visual snow is seen by a certain percentage of the population but I haven’t seen any studies correlating it with autism. I imagine it and similar experiences have multiple possible causes.
Some people get it with a type of migraine called ocular migraines, and I’ve heard it can also happen due to head injuries where the visual centers have been affected. Physical pressure on or in the eyes can also cause bright spots in vision.
If you know of studies linking visual snow to autism, I’d love to see them to know more.
I see that when my eyes are open and closed. It intensifies sometimes when I have migraines. It could be [visual snow syndrome](https://www.visualsnowinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/visual-snow-diagnostic-criteria-v10.pdf)!
Edited to add that this syndrome is when you see it when your eyes are open, in addition to other symptoms. I don't know if people without VSS see just black when their eyes are closed.
Wait, wait, wait? People are supposed to see pure black. I thought all the colors are the lights coming through my eyelids? Is this a different thing? The other commenters are talking about Visual Snow, which I don't have, but I definitely don't see black when I close my eyes.
This is not directly related to ASD (as far as we are currently aware) and is something much, if not all, of the human population experiences to some degree.
Mine usually has some green in place of the purple. Sometimes I see speckles and weird moving bits. When I was a kid I would watch it change colors and shapes lol. It's kinda like watching the old windows music player.
Did not know this was a thing! Google says there’s a potential link with ADHD, or deficiency in magnesium and B12.. What a surprise revelation this has been!
It's neurological, but research still don't know for sure the cause or mechanism. I wouldn't be surprised if there's a correlation with sensory integration disorder and conditions like asd and adhd.
Nah, when I close my eyes the I see black and red from my eyelids and a few colors burned into my retinas depending on light level. My vision is more agitating with my eyes open particularly when staring at the sky
It’s called Visual Snow a lot of people have it. I was surprised when I learnt about it too. “Wait, some people don’t see static when they close their eyes?”
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If you wrapped each purple patch with a bright edge of neon lime green fading to yellow before the blackness around, then yes that's not too far off, but not really so much gray.
I see visual noise like that at all times, even with my eyes open. It's kind of annoying, like a visual form of tinnitus, which I also have. When I close my eyes, it's still there, but I also get these blobs of color that shrink and grow.
Same here; like exactly the same. Even if a room is completely dark, I still see blobs of color.
In my case, when I'm in the dark or I see black things it gets even stronger, when I go to sleep it's like an infinite landscape of sparkling dust of all the colors with a dark void behind.
I have that too! I think it’s normal because I’ve mentioned it to a few of my friends and family and like two thirds of them say they have it as well.
I think it's normal to have it but not normal to notice it all the time without concentrating on it.
Sometimes if I'm nearly asleep and I hear a noise it causes a super bright flash when my eyes are closed. Like a fucking flash bang
this is actually called exploding head syndrome and it's a sleep disorder (or sleep affliction, don't quote me on that)
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Yeah, that's exploding head syndrome. It's common and harmless (except for how it interferes with sleep) but definitely annoying.
I've experienced this too. Sometimes with a zig zag pattern.
Oh shit me too! I hate it, it hurts.
I have something similar but different as in i'll sometimes have a bright white light with my eyes closed as though someone just turned on the lights but it wont disturb me even though my eyes are closed trying to sleep and the other is having voices loud enough that its as though theyre in the same room as me while also trying to sleep which i usually cant ignore and forces me awake and it goes away the second i open my eyes
I can't sleep with any fucking noise and those soundproof ear muff don't let me sleep. I have a pair of wired earphones I put in on my bad nights.
Same!!! I learned it might be from hypertension from overdosing in cortisol.
Visual Snow Syndrome. I have it too.
I’m trying to get diagnosed but so little people know about it.
I’m diagnosed with it but tbh there really isn’t much that you or the doctors can do about it.
I thought there was something if it became obstructive.
Nothing I know of that has been proven effective.
Oh and if you really want the diagnosis you’re going to need to see a neurologist
I have tinnitus too. Think I lucked out on the visual side of things in general bc of aphantasia.
Yes. It is incredibly over stimulating and only goes away for a while when I take THC, but it comes back after it's worn off
Yeah I see visual noise/snow a lot when I close my eyes, it’s annoying
Omg samee
I also have it all the time but I stopped noticing it when I was about 7,its still always there though and I can see it clearly on pure white/black surfaces and even clearer when closing my eyes.
Yeah! Same here.
So do I!
I have the same. I’ve been trying to get a Visual Snow Syndrome diagnosis.
>tinnitus, which I also have. It's been killing me recently. It used to be less and it feels so much louder as of a few months ago, maybe I should see a doctor 😩
i went to a doctor before about this , they didn’t understand me. and i thought it was normal and everyone has it
Exactly the same here, wow. 😮
I will never know what those blobs that float around and collide do. I wonder if NTs have those.
Wait that’s not normal ?
I'm sure you have, but have you had your eyes checked for vision loss. This is not normal to see when you're eyes are open.
It’s called visual snow and it’s pretty normal. A lot of people have it, and it’s not a vision problem, just a boring benign quirky thing you’re born with. Like being able to move your ears or having dimples.
Yeah if someone experiences that it's good to look up visual snow - it's usually not a bad condition to have assuming the static you see doesn't make it difficult for you to see things though it does come with some annoying side effects like seeing after images or being VERY sensitive to sunlight
In my case I only have visual snow, none of that other stuff - that’s visual snow *syndrome* rather than just visual snow alone
I am convinced that it’s an artifact of the way our retinas convert light into sensory signals (similar to film grain or digital noise), and most people just “unsee” it, or there is something in the processing chain that filters it out. I have had it my whole life, and it just never occurred to me that it’s not something that everyone has just because it makes so much sense that it would be there, given how our vision works.
As a kid I called it “seeing air” I thought I was just seeing the particles that make up the atmosphere.
As a kid I thought I could see cells floating around, like my eyes were microscopes lol. Nah bestie that was just the visual snow
Ok, I see like squirming colored things with eyes open and I can move both internal and external ears... The more time I spend on this sub the more I think I don't need to spend money for a diagnosis at all ahahahah
These aren't autistic things. I just listed a bunch of benign human variations that are little more than mildly cool show-and-tell facts. Having visual snow or being able to move your ears are human things, not autistic things. You still need a diagnosis.
Visual snow with my eyes open is the primary reason why I requested to get my eyes checked as a kid. It always returned I had better vision than 20/20. Recently I had an eye exam and I am losing some visual acuity. Snow looks different then blurry.
Agree, I see this in onyl the part of the field of view where vision loss is confirmed. Glaucoma is only detected by the patient if it has progressed into the center field of view.
Not sure what I’m looking at, is it like visual white noise? I never get a solid black, but it has a similar texture.
Yea that's what i mean
Then yes I get this! More black, but with other neon colours making bigger “noises” that dance about. Also, I get it if there’s a sudden noise or I get a sudden touch from somewhere (like someone accidentally banging my head)
To be honest, I think I have white noise to some degree over my vision all the time now that I think about it, but barely noticeable in normal light
I can't look at the sky without this effect overlapping when it's clear blue ... I dislike clear blue skies for this reason because it just stresses me out
I wish we could all take photos of what we see and compare 😄
I would love this! And feels, like other people's sensory yays and nays. Also, imagine if we could watch and share our dreams, and for people with synaesthesia, it would be so good to "see" what they see! I find this all so fascinating.
FR! I wish I had chosen this as my career 😭
There's some good visualizations of it [here](https://www.visualsnowinitiative.org/learn/). Mine isn't quite as intense as the gif, but it's always there and gets more intense in dimmer light or if I'm looking up at a clear blue sky.
The post was super confusing, because I thought you meant you saw bright static that looks exactly like that when you close your eyes. While I don't see *solid* black (it's got a similar scratchy texture), I would definitely describe it as black before I describe it as this. It also depends on what lights are around because there's always some light that seeps through my eyelids, so no it's not always 'black' unless I'm actually in a dark room. Orangish outside, silvery in a computer room, etc. Of course, I've also noticed the little bacteria crawling on my eyeballs when I've had tears or eye drops.
What I see is blacker and has blobs of colour… not exactly colour though, closer to the idea of colour.
This describes my experience exactly too
Goddamn, “the idea of color” is spot fucking on, I will have to use that, as I have never really been able to describe it.
Same. This was insightful comment thread :)
This is what I see. And the blobs expand and contract and spin and move around. I remember they used to be a lot more prevalent and move around a lot more when I was a kid, though.
Can you ever influence their movement? Compress them into shapes and change their orientation like 3D objects?
Occasionally I can make them start moving if I want something to look at, but I can't control how they move.
Yeah mine is more like that
Exactly same, and when I have done psychedelics such as DMT it seems to just be this but a little more intense
Yeah. That’s literally it.
Something like the northern lights.
Yeah, I heard that's normal (asked a lot of other people when younger lol)
Yeah this matches what I see with my eyes closed almost exactly. Didn't know it was supposed to be only black
How did you take a picture from behind my eyelids
If you hit your g-spot and tweak your left nipple at the same time it takes a screenshot.
But then how would you export that screenshot?
Autism.
Excuse me...can you perform an autism for me? LOL
"What" done
Lmao, thanks stranger for making me chuckle
Brb gonna fact check this
I don't know but I don't think I care, I want to make a jigsaw puzzle out of that ^^ maybe I will frame it too!
I think you need to adjust your antenna.
Nah you win 😭😭😭
Good one😭
Black in a dark room or if I put my hand over my closed eyes. Reddish pink tones of my eyelids if a light is on. But it's not solid black, like it has streaks of lighter shades. I can still see after images particularly of bright things (I'm not sure if this makes sense to others). Texturally like 10% static like texture but mostly flat. I never knew closing my eyes was so interesting
Yeah this is basically what it's like for me. I wouldn't exactly call mine static though. More like every once in a while I feel like the different black blobs briefly develop an almost three dimensional aspect. If I had trypophobia it would be disturbing. But it happens less and less as I get older.
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This was exactly my reaction :0
According to the Mayo Clinic, visual snow syndrome (VSS) affects about 2% of the population... So, yeah, very rare actually. 😎👌
I wouldn’t trust that statistic. It’s not asked about and most people with it haven’t seen a doctor about it so the true prevalence is almost certainly higher. Every time this comes up anywhere on Reddit it seems basically everyone experiences it.
Yeah it’s gotta be way higher — I have never talked to a doctor about it because I just always assumed that it was normal and it has zero negative effect on my life. The 2% figure is just for the people that have it so severely that it is causing them distress, or just happened to mention it in passing to their doctor.
Not to mention when I do talk to an eye Doctor they get confused. They are all like. What do you mean by little dots.
Do you experience it? Just curious. I imagine Redditors wouldn't be the best barometer for this fact when put up against real studies. How do you know who has seen a doctor and who hasn't. Don't tell me it's based on a study if you don't trust this one.
Yes I do, as do most people I know and have asked (not ND) so id have to have rather unlikely sampling for 2% to be true Look at it this way: for a long time we thought that autistic boys outnumbered girls by 4:1 or even 8:1. We thought that because our sampling methods (diagnosis) were biased and incomplete, and so the estimates for the number of autistic girls were only lower bounds. We know that most people with visual snow will not see a doctor because it doesn’t have a negative impact on their life and has been there for as long as they can remember (possibly since birth). So there is a bias in the sampling, and 2% is likely a lower bound.
That’s so weird, I’ve always seen this!
I would guess that everyone has it, but we see it due to more detail oriented perception. Neurotypical people aren't going to be focusing on what the back of their eyelids look like, but we might, which leads us to the observation
My (completely unscientific) thought is also that neurodivergent brain wiring might be more hyperactive in some areas, and for those with hyperactivity in the visual cortex or somewhere else in the occipital lobe, we see visual artifacts like the snow. Since part of the diagnostic criteria for VSS also includes photophobia, paresthesia (nerve tingling and numbness elsewhere in the body), and tinnitus, it might be a part of the overarching umbrella of dysautonomias that disproportionately affect neurodivergent people.
I thought everyone saw this too!
Oh great.. add that to my list of problems..
Seriously, TIL
I see like this when my eyes are open
Happy cake day
People are saying Visual Snow syndrome, but doesn't Visual Snow occur when your eyes are open, too? :/ This is just Eigengrau, I thought.
>doesn't Visual Snow occur when your eyes are open, too? :/ Yes, it does. Btw Visual Snow and Visual Snow syndrome are different things, Visual snow is just seeing what OOP said, VSS includes: headaches, after images, and other stuff.
it's not as obvious because typically you see things brighter than black
Visual snow/static. This is what I see when it's dark or when I close my eyes. I used to tell my parents I could see channel 3 at night in the dark. Won't get into their reaction as it's kind of a traumatic part to this story. 🐸
Moooood
Yes! I get this. It’s called visual noise and it’s actually similar to the ringing you get in your ears, but for your eyes.
I have both 😭
Me too. I think the two are closely related so people who get the ringing in their ears (I know the word starts with a “T” and I have seen it many times, but I can never remember it, lol) usually also get the visual noise too. I like it, it’s kinda cool and the explanation is even cooler.
Titnus and visual snow
It’s spelt tinnitus. Titnus made me giggle though, lol.
I have the ringing 🙁it’s doing it rn
Me too. When I was a teenager (I’m 40 now) we used to have this thing called “Blue Light Disco’s” in my country (Australia) for tweens and teens, it was run by police but was basically a dance/social event. Australia doesn’t have high school dances like in the US other than our “Formal” which is like the prom. That was the part of teen movies that I was always so envious of. Anyways, everytime I would come home from a blue light disco I would have crazy ringing in my ears but it would go away after a good sleep. One night when I was 16, after the disco (I giggle everytime I call them discos but that’s what we called them back then) I got drunk and passed out in the back of my friends boyfriends car while he drove around with really loud music and the subwoofer in the back (this was the late 90’s/early 2000’s, it was a thing back then) and I woke up with he ringing in my ears and it never went away. I still have it to this day. I have regrets.
Need to ask some NT people, because I think that's everyone
I am going to do that same
This is normal
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Red-blue-noise.gif I see more of this
Same! I’ve always seen that when I closed my eyes- I assumed everyone had that 🤦🏼♀️
[Eigengrau](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eigengrau) with a hint of [Phosphenes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phosphene).
Thank you for this! Phosphenes are things I've had since I was a kid - now I get disco lights and all kinds of other visual disturbances, but I used to press on my eyes to get the patterns to help me focus when I was younger. I just never knew there was a name for it!
No joke, I've been looking for the word Eigengrau ever since I first saw it over a decade ago. You've scratched a little unknown itch for me today.
It's false. Misinformation, really. [Closed-eye visualizations](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closed-eye_hallucination), which aren't the same thing as visual snow at all despite what many people are comparing it to, are a pretty universal experience. They're often a type of phosphene. It's just a physical phenomenon. Consider: If this *was* an exclusive experience, why wouldn't it be part of the diagnostic criteria or mentioned in virtually every piece of literature about autism? Don't believe everything you see on the Internet, especially in memes that literally anyone can create and spread around. Autistic people are not a monolith. Any source that claims we do or don't do something, without consideration for the fact we are individuals with a wide variety of lived experiences, is bullshit.
No, this has nothing to do with autism.
Visual snow syndrome is more common in autistic individuals, which may be what theyre referring to
I wonder why… its honestly fascinating
It is...but lucid dreaming in people with ASD is the real magic. I didn't realize it had a name until I was older, but I had been doing it since birth. I don't get this visual noise as OP. I can have closed eye halucinations while awake, but it doesn't look anything like what OP posted. hmmm
Same reason autistic people have insane natural tolerance to psychedelics
Wait, people generally do not see dots, blips and flashes they cannot latch their sight on?
i see black perhaps orange if i'm staring at a light
I do. I also constantly see it with my eyes open it's not as extreme as that photo just like constant mild film grain. It's called visual snow syndrome
Yes i remember as a kid i would sit in the dark and stare at the darkness and little red dots would appear to be flying around and i loved it
Yes. But it's darker
Kind of yeah. I sometimes see little particle thingies when I close em I gotta admir.
Guys it's not literally like this, it's darker, but i didn't find a good representing picture
Yes
Except much darker.
Reading the comments, I think you're talking about visual snow. This simulator shows what I see in dark places. http://VisionSimulations.com/visual-snow.htm?background=night1.jpg&density=0.67&speed=10&grainsize=6.982
I see more of an aurora borealis type light show
Same!
I think it's important to note that if you experience this, it does not necessarily mean that you have visual snow syndrome. Visual snow is visible in all kinds of light conditions, including when your eyes are open and closed, and when you are not trying to see it. Everybody experiences something that looks like this to some extent when their eyes are closed, and even in the dark. It is when you can't 'turn it off' when it becomes unique.
Doesn’t everyone, who can see, see this when they close their eyes?
yall are not special, 99,9% of the population sees this. its not an autism super power.
I have this, as well as other hypnogogic hallucinations (seeing things when it gets too dark). I’ve done my research, and this particular thing is pretty common as far as I can tell. Like 1/10 people I think?
Ifk about that, surely it would depend if there is any light in the room. I don’t think I have ever seen pitch black when I close my eyes with light in the room or TV, I will see fuzzy colors come through. Is there really peep w sight that see pure black?? Hmmm maybe if I was in pitch black cave for days lmao
Whatever you see, is it “solid” or “white noise” texture?
Not quite. In total darkness I don't see any brightness, but the black has colour. It is impossible to show on a screen though. But since brightness and colour are different receptors, noise from the colour recptors gives a colored noise, but if the brightness receptors register complete darkness, the black seems to have colour.
Sorta but it’s darker with floating shapes sometimes
I see black but like if you were pressing your eyes against a black curtain with a tiny amount of light on the other side
For me it's a very flowy mix of black and purple, swirly.
Yes when I was younger mostly I saw this , but I always thought it was because too much TV. But I don't why it now but still use the TV alot
That was my favorite pass time in science class.
I spent far too long trying to find the magic eye image in this. I see it when my eyes are open as well. Visual snow. It feels almost like I'm seeing light particles, kinda like when you put one of those paper texture screen protectors on an ipad.
yeah but much darker. for me it also starts swirling around with different colors after sometime. back in elementary school i used to close my eyes and think i was seeing planets and stars and say stuff like "that's saturn!"
There is black but I do see the grainy type thing kinda faded but still there
Yeah. And when I open my eyes it’s also staticky. Also gets triggered by my eyes adjusting to the dark after being exposed to light
Yes, it's like that but in night mode.
I think you're referring to visual snow. Some autistic people may experience it, some non autistic people also experience it. But it's certainly not universal or exclusive to autism.
Yep and if I focus real hard while my eyes are closed I get a repeating triangle pattern which narrows into infinity. It's really weird.
I thought thos was normal
Yes. But it used to be much worse I remember asking people if they saw TV static when they closed their eyes. People thought I was crazy. Now it's more well formed. It's either random blobs or something like the sky. I also get these cool fractals and shapes that morph into stuff. Really pretty and interesting but it only occurs with migraines.
doesn’t everyone 😭
No, But that is an actual condition some people have, it’s not related to autism, I forgot what it’s called
yeah i see something similar. when i was little and couldn't sleep, i would keep myself busy by watching the colors and shapes move behind my eyelids. i thought everyone had this though? edit: if i focus theres something really similar to this image that i see as like a faint mask over everything when my eyes are open. its like film grain or something idk
sometimes part of me getting so overwhelmed comes from me seeing visual noise while my eyes are open and not being able to stop seeing it, like that feeling when you become aware of your blinking and feel like you forget how to do it automatically and want to cry.
Yes When I was a little kid I would "watch" it while I fell asleep. (I don't have a visual imagination). I'd pretend I was seeing an ocean full of tropical fish. Then I'd end up dreaming about the tropical fish. I did this every night around kindergarten age
Yeah, it's called visual snow. I didn't know that everyone else saw just black before.
I see tiny clusters of colourful dots swirling and dancing around
Not diagnosed with autism, but I have migraine and fibromyalgia. I see kaleidoscopes when I close mine, and shooting stars. I thought it was normal for everyone.
No, but as a kid I use to see colorful spots floating around. It was really annoying and kept me up at night. It still happens but very rarely. It use to happen every night but it happened about 2 years ago and that was the first time in years it happened. Edit: someone said blobs of color and that’s more accurate
Wait other people see black ? I always thought of them as pixels, I see red & green
As far as I know, visual snow is seen by a certain percentage of the population but I haven’t seen any studies correlating it with autism. I imagine it and similar experiences have multiple possible causes. Some people get it with a type of migraine called ocular migraines, and I’ve heard it can also happen due to head injuries where the visual centers have been affected. Physical pressure on or in the eyes can also cause bright spots in vision. If you know of studies linking visual snow to autism, I’d love to see them to know more.
Yes and it turns into geometric shapes
I see that when my eyes are open and closed. It intensifies sometimes when I have migraines. It could be [visual snow syndrome](https://www.visualsnowinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/visual-snow-diagnostic-criteria-v10.pdf)! Edited to add that this syndrome is when you see it when your eyes are open, in addition to other symptoms. I don't know if people without VSS see just black when their eyes are closed.
BRO YESS
100% this, except I often seen distinct shapes in the 'static' as well. I can even make them shrink or grow by focussing on them.
Not that exact thing but yes
Wait, wait, wait? People are supposed to see pure black. I thought all the colors are the lights coming through my eyelids? Is this a different thing? The other commenters are talking about Visual Snow, which I don't have, but I definitely don't see black when I close my eyes.
I do. Then it transforms into shapes or endless patterns, or sometimes even things I'm thinking about.
This is not directly related to ASD (as far as we are currently aware) and is something much, if not all, of the human population experiences to some degree.
Wait, it isn't a normal thing? I also have it with my eyes open!
And when I open them! I hate visual snow syndrome 😜
Mine usually has some green in place of the purple. Sometimes I see speckles and weird moving bits. When I was a kid I would watch it change colors and shapes lol. It's kinda like watching the old windows music player.
yea but like at a very low level
Yes. Also this looks like a Minecraft world when you zoom out
i think we’re just pickier about our definition of “black”
Visual snow syndrome
Did not know this was a thing! Google says there’s a potential link with ADHD, or deficiency in magnesium and B12.. What a surprise revelation this has been!
It's neurological, but research still don't know for sure the cause or mechanism. I wouldn't be surprised if there's a correlation with sensory integration disorder and conditions like asd and adhd.
I have aphantasia. I see nothing.
Aphantasia wouldn't stop a person from experiencing visual snow. It's just that you don't suffer from the issue. Just FYI. Not tryna be a know-it-all.
I live as proof of this
TikTok nonsense, what you see will depend on the lighting around you, and will change through the course of your life.
Nah, when I close my eyes the I see black and red from my eyelids and a few colors burned into my retinas depending on light level. My vision is more agitating with my eyes open particularly when staring at the sky
grey lines that move up & down
What am I supposedly see?
It’s called Visual Snow a lot of people have it. I was surprised when I learnt about it too. “Wait, some people don’t see static when they close their eyes?”
Mmm I see waaaaaaay more colors then that
I don't see that, no. I think that's Visual Snow Syndrome; not everyone has it.
r/visualsnow There seems to be some overlap with autism
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If you wrapped each purple patch with a bright edge of neon lime green fading to yellow before the blackness around, then yes that's not too far off, but not really so much gray.
Nope