Today I found out what causes “eye floaters”.
For those who’ve never experienced this phenomenon, eye floaters are little oddly shaped objects that appear in your vision, often when one looks at bright light such as a blue sky. Their shapes vary greatly, but will often appear as spots, cobwebs, or randomly shaped stringy objects. These are not optical illusions, but rather something your eyes are actually perceiving. There are a few different things that can cause this, but in most cases these eye floaters are caused by pieces of the gel-like vitreous breaking off from the back portion of your eye and then floating about in your eye ball.
The vitreous humor, or often just “vitreous”, is a clear gel that fills the gap between your retina and lens, helping maintain the round shape of your eye in the process. This gel is about 99% water and 1% other elements; the latter of which consists mostly of a network of hyaluronic acid and collagen. Hyaluronic acid ends up retaining water molecules. Over time though, this network breaks down which results in the hyaluronic acid releasing its trapped water molecules. When this happens, it forms a watery core in your vitreous body.
As you age then, pieces of the still gel-like collagen/hyaluronic acid network will break off and float around in this watery center. When light passes through this area, it creates a shadow on your retina. This shadow is actually what you are seeing when you see the eye floaters.
Children and teenagers almost never experience these types of eye floaters as there must first be some deterioration of the gel-like substance in their eye, creating the watery core, for these floaters to appear. However, they do still sometimes experience a certain type of eye floater that often appears more like a crystallized web across their vision. These floaters aren’t found in the vitreous humor like the above floaters. Instead, they are found in the Premacular Bursa area, right on top of the retina. These floaters are microscopic in size and only appear as big as they do because of their proximity to the retina. Unfortunately, their microscopic nature makes them almost impossible to treat in most cases.
Bonus Factoids:
- Interestingly, if the eye floaters would just stay still instead of floating around, your brain would automatically tune them out and you’d never consciously see them. Your brain does this all the time with things both in and outside of your eyes. One example of this inside your eye are blood vessels in the eye which obstruct light; because they are fixed in location, relative to the retina, your brain tunes them out completely and you don’t consciously perceive them.
- The reason you can see floaters better when looking at, for instance, a bright blue sky, is because your pupils contract to a very small size, thus reducing the aperture, which in turn makes floaters more apparent and focused.
- Individual floaters often won’t change much throughout your lifetime, typically retaining their basic shape and size.
- The perception of eye floaters is known as myodesopsia.
- The reason the floating specs never seem to stay still is because floaters, being suspended in the vitreous humor, move when your eye moves. So as you try to look at them, they will appear to drift with your eye movement.
- Eye floaters are examples of entoptic phenomena. Entoptic phenomena are things we see where the source is within the eye itself.
- If you ever see a ton of floaters appear out of no where, possibly with some light flashes, you should get to an eye doctor immediately. There is a chance (1 in 7) that your retina is about to detach from the back of your eye. If that happens, you have very little time to get it fixed before it effectively dies and you go blind from that eye.
- Floaters can damage the retina by tugging on it, sometimes producing a tear. When a tear happens, vitreous can invade the opening in the tear, which will ultimately widen the gap and in 50% of these cases will result in the retina eventually becoming fully detached if not repaired via surgery.
- “Light flashes” not caused by actual light, also known as photopsia, will often occur when the photoreceptors in the retina receive stimulation from being touched or from being torn. This produces an electrical impulse to your brain, which your brain more or less interprets as a light flash. This physical stimulation is often caused when traction is being applied while the vitreous detachment is taking place. The flashes should subside when the vitreous finally detaches.
- These flashes will also often temporarily occur when you get a sharp blow to the head. The sudden jarring causes pressure on the retina; this in turn creates an electrical impulse to the brain which the brain interprets as a flash.
- Yet another potential cause of these flashes is with migraine headaches, usually caused by a spasm of blood vessels in the brain. In this case, you will experience the flashes in both eyes at the same time, often followed by an extreme headache, though this doesn’t necessarily have to follow with a headache. Basically, if you are experiencing these flashes in both eyes at the same time, it is likely caused by either severe head trauma, which resulted in damage to both of your retinas, or more likely by some form of ophthalmic migraine.
- Aside: as someone who has had about 12 of these type of migraines, with the extreme headache directly following about 15-ish minutes of flashes where you can barely see in between the flashes, I can say, it’s like getting kicked in the balls continually for about 3 hours or so, only the pain is in your head instead of balls and abdomen. This is all followed by your eyes having a dull ache for a few days. You will also have major pain in your eyes and possible recurrence of the migraine, if you decide to not wear sunglasses at all times during the few days following this event; including wearing the sunglasses inside where people will inevitably think you are a douche for doing so.
- About 50% of all people will have a vitreous detachment by the time they turn 80.
- If you have had a vitreous detachment and you’ve experienced light flashes with that, you have about a 15% chance of developing a retinal tear. From there, you have about a 50% chance of having your retina eventually become fully detached from the back of your eye.
- Nearsighted people have a much higher chance of experiencing vitreous detachments due to their often elongated eye shape.
- Surgeries do exist for getting rid of eye floaters, if they seriously hamper your vision. This is typically done by replacing the gel-like substance in your eye with a saline liquid.
- When your retina is in the process of detaching, you will often see small dots all over the place. What is happening here is that blood is being leaked into the vitreous and those dots are your visual perception of that blood in your eye.
- Check out this optical illusion for another example of your brain tuning something out based on it being fixed relative to motion; for best affect, once the dots disappear, without looking away, press the stop button; they’ll reappear; press the button again to restart the motion and they’ll disappear instantly.
Sources:
“Oh squiggly line in my eye fluid. I see you there…lurking on the periphery of my vision. But when I try to look at you, you scurry away. Are you shy squiggly line? Why only when I ignore you do you return to the center of my eye? Oh squiggly line…it’s alright. You are forgiven.” -Stewie Griffin
that is a scary article. thanks for the info. i think i ll book myself into an eye doctor asap. you may have saved my sight
Very interesting article. I also would like to know if someone has seen little black and white circles which kinda look like aims. It looks like an alternating series of circles, for example an outer white circle, a black one in it and a white circle in the middle. There are generally three or four circles with alternating colors in varying size. I mostly see them when my glasses are wet for example from rain falling on them. They behave in the same way as the eye floaters moving away when you try to look at them and appear when looking at a bright object, the sky or some kind of a light.
Also caused by MDMA. See “HPPV”
Wow! I have always been wondering what those were and then decided they must be uni-cellular creatures like amoeba or something haha. This makes more sense finally!
I see more than floaters. Floaters are those that move slowly and can be odd-shaped.
I see cells moving along constantly… and I saw those while I was a young child [while looking at the sky]. Those cells come from the edge of my vision, move across the whole field, and exit on the other side. They do change direction here and there. Very much like blood flow to me…
ive been seeing those since i was like 5… my eyes are pretty bad right now im 18
Chris, im with you im 24 in a couple days the last year has gotten much worse. I imagine at current rate by the time I am 30 I will need surgery
I am an eye doctor. Don’t worry about longstanding floaters – everyone has them. They are most obvious on a sunny day when looking up at blue sky.
New onset floaters should be examined by an eye specialist, especially when associated with flashes of light, but most of these will be OK.
dont panic!
I’ve always wondered about these; I’ve had them since I was in middle or elementary school. I have been to the eye doctor since then…I have astigmatism and needed glasses for a few years in elementary school.
Now I know I’m not alone.
mmm….i think some of my eye floaters are actually scar tissue, i have one big one after i got hit in the eye with a stone
I always thought they were burns in cornea from staring at bright lights or the sun.
wow i thought i was the only one with these things! i never knew what to call them (those things that i see when im looking at something bright and it always moves away when i try to look at it….?) so i couldnt google it. very interesting! and scary actually… now i’m afraid that my eyes just suck.
I have had these since I was in Grade 8, I’m in 9 now and I am starting to have those flashes. I’m going to see my eye doctor soon. Also I am nearsighted so I kind of got a little worried when I read this. Hopefully it can be resolved easily an painlessly. Great article an thanks!
I remember seeing large floaters since I was 5 years old. That was 40 years ago and now several floaters in my right eye are extremely distracting. Many are very large, and two of the large ones are quite opaque. I am constantly twitching my eye just to read the computer screen, especially on pages with white backgrounds. ;-P
Thanks for mentioning how surgery is available. All of my eye doctors have said nothing can be done, that I should live with it; but of course I’ve read about lasers and enzyme injections and vitrectomies.
Great article. Thanks.
floaters ok
what about that funny squirming effect when you look at a bright sky?
like a subtle lightning storm
almost subconscious sparklers…
anyone perceive that??
noticed since i was a kid…
I just have to point out that “factoid” means unverified or incorrect information.
@K: Please read: The Difference Between a Fact and a Factoid
I recall seeing floaters when I was a child. Perhaps it was related to my near sightedness – I’m around 20:450 or so.
Amazing! Never know eye floaters actually existed. Thought of it as optical illusion only. And as always, Factoids part of full of amazement.
I read this article thinking it would be another opinion on this phenomenon but it turned out very interesting. The one thing that caught me was the piece where it says “children and teens almost never get it.” This is scary because I have some myself and I am only sixteen. I also have type one diabetes, though I went to the eye doctor for my six-month check up and asked him if it was related to my illness and he replied “no, floaters are common.” I disagree myself for I have never had such an annoyance in my sight like this one. I wish there was a way to rid this from my vision without surgery. :S
what about dark-colored spots, that you see with eyes closed and light on?
About half a year ago I started getting three floaters that have been consistent ever since. Now that Im sure of what they are, Id like to know if this means my eyesight is deteriorating. The last time my eyes were checked I was a 20/10 [and very proud]. Lately Ive been dying my hair, in total about 4 or 5 times. Ive heard this can weaken your eyesight, and I wanted to know if thats true. Is there something wrong with my eyesight? If so, is there anything I can do to prevent further deterioration? Im in my teens and I really dont want my eyes to be compromised. Please reply to my email(:
Im 13 years old and i have these black floaters. I am extremley scared by this and I have been crying myself to sleep constantly worrying about them. I am scared that my floaters wwill become unbearable and i just cant wait till nighttime so that I can go to sleep and forget about them, Is there any help out there for me? I have been to my opticians and she said there is nothing I can do and to just live with it, but i cant!! please help me i cant live like this anymore!
I did enjoy these floating floaters when i was napping on the summer afternoons with eyes half-closed. Now my sight is reduced because of long time of reading and watching,and i selom see them these days.hope Let me smash the computer and go napping under apple trees back in my hometown..floaters ,i miss you .
@chris
dude i got the same problem as you!
I have seen these once in a while since I was pretty young, probably around 6, but I wouldn’t remember much before that(I’m just 15 now). Besides that though my vision is fine even though the rest of my family has glasses.
ok………. kinda freaking out right now as i get flashes whenever i go to sleep and i get really bad migraines that pain killers dont cure, i been for an eye test and they said my eyes were fine ??????????? could they be wrong??
I’m 16 and experience eye floaters,what’s the reason?you have written that children and teenagers do not generally experience this o.O
Very interesting article, but I have been experiencing eye floaters since I was about 7 or 8 years old. So I must be one of the rare people. I have never really worried about floaters, except for lately; they are starting to get worse. I know it’s time to see my eye dr and I may have to bring all of this up.
hi,
thank you for your valuable information..actually i had an lasik in 2008.. now am experiencing this black eye floaters..is it dangerous??? plz any one reply me….iam bit scared of this
I’ve often wondered about these; I’ve had them since I was in middle or elementary school. I have been to the eye doctor since then…I have astigmatism and required glasses for several years in elementary school.
First: Thousand thanks for publishing this article! It is my first time ever to read about this subject and so well researched article also! Greatly appreaciated!
I agree with Toby and Lydia. And thanks to the eye doctor telling us not to panic
I have had eye floaters since I was 7-8 and I am 46 now. When I was 25 I went to an eyedoctor asking about it, and he told me that nothing could be done and that I better get used to them. He also told me that I should wear sunglasses in order not to see them and to protect my eyes from getting worse. He told me it might very gradually get a little worse, but that it was not a serious problem.
I always thought it was caused from looking at the sun when I was a kid and especially from looking at the fixed light that came from using magnifying glass in order to burn words into wood – which I loved when I was 8-12 yo.
When I think of them they get worse. So while reading this article and every comment, I had a lot of them flying around. It has gotten a bit worse over the years, and sometimes when I read webpages with white background on my computer I have to move my head to get the floater out of the way so that I can see the words with out disturbance. Not that I got blind at all. If I take a test I see very well actually, and I see better than most of my family of which few need glasses.
Most annoying is when it happens (rarely!) that the floaters kind of join together and look like a flying insect and quickly move from one side of the vision across to the other, … I instinctly believe it is a fly and try to get them away with my hand, and other people around look at my like I am crazy.
I often wear sunglasses, and some people ask my why. I never knew what to explain and thought I was almost alone in the world. Thanks to this very very well written article and great collected information, I now know that I am not alone. I did not know what to call them either. I will save this article on my computer so that I can study this even more.
I hope that the article and my comments will help enlighten some other people with this problem. You may contact me on my website about this if you like.
These eye floaters almost never appear at teenagers, but I’ve been seeing them since I was sixteen, i’m seventeen now and am still seeing them. Not alot, just a few. would that be reason enough to see a doctor? anyway I thought it was normal till I saw this article. It scares me though, I love my eyes very much x)
Oh what to do without them
is there an opthalmologist there? anyone i’ve been seeing eye floaters since May and im getting a little bit paranoid about it
Floaters are HORRIBLE! I got a big one with a big cobweb, On the 8th day in the afternoon, I saw it suddenly reduced by 75%. It dissolved enough to give me a great sense of relief. A month later I still have it but it is more tolerable. I have another one. Just notice it because I was ‘searching’ for anything suspicious and found it. It was almost invisible… All my doctors (optic ophtalmologists) say I am fine and have 20/20 vision. Relax… wait a little while. Pray.. and pray… try to sleep as much as you can and enjoy more evening activities when the floaters are not so intruding. I am still praying and thankful it is not anything worse.
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I don’t know if it’s me or not, but i can’t seem to read when i have eye floaters. I think ive had them my whole life, because i used to actually play with them… being a kid and being bored you can find anything to do. Sometimes i get so many of them, or something, they get thicker, i dunno, and its actually harder to read stuff. I was trying to do some testing on the computers and i couldn’t read the words because the ‘Eye Floaters’ were my vision’s way. Its very annoying, and i dont know if its a health problem or not, can someone help me?
there is a YAG laser that shoots the floater and evaporates them, just search in youtube.
ok in my right eye when i close my eyes i see a white dot the size of a dime it seams to fill in with blood cells when its filled it just repeats it over and over any suggestions on what it is???
I’ve had them since I was 14. The fact is they do exist. And they can be caused by serious things. But they can also be harmless. What do you do?? The only thing you can is go see a eye doctor and get your eyes dialated. They check out your retina. THEN you go back every 6 months – 1 yr depending on your Dr recommendation. Because he needs to see OVER time if there is deterioration…. Your insurances will cover it as it is a medical problem not just a check up. I’m just that unlucky person with floaters and nothing has yet indicated worse.
If you ever see the flashes or everytime you get a new one they suggest seeing the Dr. its a good idea but you need to build a history with a Dr. just looking at it once tells him if somethings wrong or bad but looking at it over time helps him to make sure its not starting to tear etc…
ALSO, I was just informed that having severe astigmatisms (like me) can make floaters more Visible. Why???? because astimatisms have to do with the light bending on your eye. Everyone has floaters to a degree, but most people hardly notice them unless looking for it.So if you have severe astigmatisms like me but don’t wear your glasses of contacts like me. You should try doing that and see if it helps make them little less annoying. My astigmatism is so bad in my left eye its as much the ratio is as bad as my prescription. and the left eye is the one I see the floaters the most. With the newer toric contacts I’ve been less annoyed by the floaters. Just need those yearly checkups.
does any one else play with there floaters, like try to concentrate on them and when you do you can move it around and if you move your eye back and forth and then stop it floats of somewhere? also i have partial heterochromia in the eye that i can see the floaters in, i havent always had partial heterchromia it developed when i was about 11-12(not really sure someone noticed it, i havent seen an eye specialist about it
) im 14 at the moment and worried about these floaters cause they could be connected to the heterochromia :S plz reply if you know anything
I have a bad habit about getting scared of what I read. I got prescribed glasses last year to help my migraines. After that, I started getting the flashes. Never had them before. They are not bad, and, Riley, I do play with them. I noticed that it makes them go away sometimes like they just fall out of existence……. only to return again like those turtles on super mario brothers. Thanks, this article scared the crap out of me at first but, then I realize that if something was bad wrong, we would all know it and just a trip to the eye doctor will solve the worries. Thanks!
Very neat article! I’ve had these as long as I can remember from my childhood. They cause me no harm, but I always thought it was something completely unique to my eyes. At times I can see them now, rarely, but more than anything they are entertaining.
I remember trying to ask my mum about them when I was little and she didn’t get what I was talking about.
It wasn’t until today’s Word of the day at Dictionary.com was musca volitans which means eye floater that I even know about them existing!
Iv had theese floters since a was abour 15 woke up one morning wen i was hung over i always put it down to that . to much booze and also wen having a rare fag they seem to get worse. people say wen looling at the blue sky thay can see um . well i say come and love on england with all these dark clouds tou not bother you then . problem solved ….dont drink or smoke and Always live under a dark cloud x
wow this is crazy…its funny how i was watching family guy and stewie starts saying a poem about the squiggly line in his eye and i immediately realize he is describing what i have been seeing in my eye for a while now..im 18 and i have perfect vision which is the wierd part since im noticing it has to do with aging and its pretty common in people with bad vision(thats what i think; i’m not aiming to offend anyone) and well im glad i found this article, now i know what to call it and now i know its not all in my head
I was at work and i kept swapping at nets, which wasn’t there because i went to a different area at work and the nets(floaters) follwed me. Then i had a series of floaters to appear in ribbon form which scared me. I also have one weepy eyes when i wear my glasses. Now that I know im not losing my mind (and now my eyesite) i will be making an appt. with my eye dr asap
Okay, this goes out particular to the youngsters out there: listen to what the doctor said and do not panic!
I’ve had them forever. I recall trying to explain to my teacher when I was 10 or so and asking her what they were; she had no idea what I was describing.
I had excellent visual acuity; no problems at all except now I need reading glasses due to – ahem! the aging process.
The best thing to do if you’re worried about this – or anything medical – is see a good doctor.