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 Facts:
- 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.
Fun Link:
- 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.
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I’m 14 years old, and I think I may have floaters in my eyes. Yet, there’s been another strange phenomenon happening in my eyes my entire life. It looks as if the world is statical, like on a television, and it never goes away, even when I wear my glasses,(For distance). Is something wrong with my eyes???? Please help me!!!!
Liz – what you are describing is a eye issue called Visual Snow. For some people it just comes and goes, for other (like me) it is a permanent, persistent field of static in your vision. I have had this my entire life (some people get it later on and it comes and goes). basically, my vision has a constant field of multi-colored static in it. even if you close your eyes, you will see this static. very little is known about the phenomenon, and sadly, alot of medical professionals refuse to admit it even exists. (I was told I was lieing about it when I was a child). Other then the static itself though, it doesn’t actually affect your vision. You may need to start to come to terms with the fact that you will have this your entire life. People with Visual Snow also tend to have vertigo and migraines… do a little research on Visual Snow, maybe it will help you understand whats going on with your vision.
Hi Liz. Have you ever suffered a concussion? That means having banged your head very hard against something solid? I have heard of hockey players describing such a thing after a head injury.. having crashed into someone or something else or fallen on a hard surface with their head hitting it.
You should talk to your family doctor about this.
I have had floaters occasionally my whole life, from childhood to middle age. They come and go, and have never gotten worse. I used to think they were fibers gliding along the retina.
I don’t know about everyone else, but I see these floaters pretty much every time I look at bright light. Is that bad?
I’m 14 too and have had floaters for years, but I only recently heard about this retina detachment thing – it’s quite scary
should I expect it to happen?? Or is it quite rare? Also I only start to see my floaters when I concentrate on them so I guess they’re not that serious. I have something similar to Liz, when I look at a clear sky or blank screen etc, I can see almost a static of tiny dots. I told my optician about the floaters a few years ago, he said it was fine I should just ignore them, then I wouldn’t see them (basically he didn’t care 
)
When it comes to entoptic phenomenons Ive had pretty much all of them. Those static of tiny dots is called blue field entoptic phenomenon and what your seeing is actually the white blood cells moving through your blood vessels. I have floaters also and have got used to them. Was worrisome at first but now i don’t even notice them much. I also get ocular migraines like twice a year which pretty much leaves me half blind for 10 minutes. Its like a squiggly line that pulses in my vision. I also get an array of different colors when i close my eyes (purples and greens mostly) and at night i get sort of strobe light effect when i close my eyes which goes away after a bit. XD Always get yours eye checked though just in case. It will make you feel better also knowing whats up.
One word-parasites!
Im only 17 and i have toxoplasmosis, but then the floaters in my eye changed i started seeing more of them so i went to see my doctor and he said that the gel as you get older breaks away and its going to happen to me sooner since i have toxoplasmsis but i was wonder if the gel breaks away from each other whats going to happen to me? will that make me see worse then i do now or will i be blind after that happens?
“Individual floaters often won’t change much throughout your lifetime, typically retaining their basic shape and size.”
Is wrong because, against general belief, they get naturally absorbed within the eye and so, they do change in shape and disappear over time.
Floaters do not go away only when there is an on-going problem that needs treating, like diabetes, blood pressure…
I’m 25 and I’ve had floaters since I was 17 and I dont notice them all that much anymore unless I want to see them. My doctor says because I have toxoplasmsis having floaters is normal because of the damage that was done to my eyes. Less I start to lose my vision I am not going to worry about it. If I do worry, I talk to my doctor or ask to see a specialist.
At first these floaters really bothered me. I found myself swatting at what i initially thought was flies or other pest. the intensity comes and goes as i am getting more used to them.
hi i am 44 i blind in my left eye.. my right eye i have glaucoma & floaters,, it i move my eye at all 4 or 5 floaters like a web across my eye the whole time.. cant look at the sky or bright walls, can be so f’##king frustration…..
When I was 16 I had floaters they disappeared am now 28 they are back am really worried same eye still…
I have just turned 15, have exams coming up and I am starting to notice these spots ( I think they are floaters), also I have been noticing different coloured patches, the ones that you get when you stare into the sun. When it starts I get a headache, I feel really dizzy, I can’t concentrate and I feel fatigued. The other day I nearly went home, my eyes went all itchy and the nurse just thought it was hay fever even though I have never had that In my life. My eyes have been randomly unfocusing aswell, ill just be looking at the whiteboard and it will unfocus. I have never had problems with short or long sighted ness, and have always been a very good reader/ had good eye sight. Should I be concerned ?
Hey! I have great news!
I also had the issue of eye floaters and they are a real neusance when you are trying to read something in small print. I have fixed the problem!
Here is what you need to do to have the eye floaters move out of your direct vision:
-move your eyes up really fast and then slowly lower them back down.
-repeat this a couple of times and see if you can still see the eye floaters.
What happens is you shift the eye floaters down in your eye so that you cant really see them anymore.
Hope this helps!
NEAR SOLUTION FOR WORKING ON A COMPUTER!!
I’ve had eye floaters since I was 12, and being 26 now.. it’s been a while!
Recently I got a job working behind a computer all day long. This is especially annoying for all who have eye floaters, for we know that looking at bright surfaces illuminates the eye floaters all the more. About a week ago I discovered (on Windows 7 operating system) that if you press CTRL-ALT-DELETE, you will be taken to a menu with a set of options (Lock this Computer; Switch User; Log Off: etc). Down in the bottom left corner there is a button; click it! You will be given a number of options. The middle one says “See more contrast in colors (High Contrast). This turns everything BLACK! Check the box, hit Apply, then when you return to your desktop, EVERYTHING will be black with white letters. This makes the floaters all but disappear while looking at your monitor. I’ve been using it ever since the day I discovered it, and man has it helped!
Bonus tip: If you have Chrome [web browser], you can go to the Chrome store and download a plugin that will do the same thing in your browser
Just search High Contrast mode in the Chrome store
I am 41 years old now , I have had these floaters in my eyes since six years old . They worry me . I have been to the doctor so many times and the doctors brush it off like it’s nothing but I really worry now after reading up on this. What should I do to make sure I’m going to be okay?
I have them through type one diabetes get your eyes checked over because they could be indicative of a bleed behind the eye which is usually undetected from the front view
Hi I’m 14 too and I get these “floater” when ever I look at bright things such as the sky on a sunny day or snow. I sometimes get swarms of them, TONS of linty swigglies moving about in my vision. The first time I noticed this I was snowboarding and I thought there was something in my contacts. But to my dismay it seems as though its my eye. The whole “Detachment” idea really scares me!! Also I get migraine head aches and they sometimes effect my eyesight in one of my eyes. Are my eyes going to detach themselves when I’m like 30? Am I completely screwed?! I didn’t even know this happened to other ppl!! Please help!!
@Philomena: Not at all. Eye floaters are common. While ocular migraines aren’t as common, they aren’t generally that big of a deal except for the fact that they are insanely painful. If you get ocular migraines, just make sure to wear good, dark 100% blocking UV/UB sunglasses when outside, particularly on sunny days. Polarized ones work best there (speaking from personal experience). On a sunny day, if I don’t wear such sunglasses outside at all times, if I’m out for more than an hour or two, an ocular migraine always follows. With the sunglasses, I’m fine. Don’t go cheapy on the sunglasses either. That’s just a recipe for migraines if your eyes are like mine.
im 17 and i get eye floaters quite a loat sometimes, and they appear in rather darkish sorts of shapes, and as much as i keep moving my eye about they dont seem to go away untill i start focusing on something else. at first i got really worried and thought that it might be my eyes starting to go blind, but i really dont know
im 18 and i see in my left eye a circle with a grey dot in the centre, ive had this for about a year and a half now and it wont go away and its driving me nuts, sometimes it multiplies and i can see more circles, i can only see them in the light, ive been to get my eyes tested but my vision is perfect, not sure what to do?
@Savannah: I think my mother had something similar, and it turned out that she had an eyelash that was growing downwards and touching er eyeball. She said it loked like a circle with a grey bit in the middle, so maybe you should check your eye for that?
Can floatering affects your sleep sometimes?. can it hinder you from catching sleep?i have floatering in my right eyes and once in a while, i cannot fall in sleep as normal i thought is something else, but could it be the floatering that is imparing my sleep.
i am 27 years of age and from past one month i observed the sometimes opaque and sometimes transparent dot in my vision. when i focus on the dot it escapes from the vision and always try to escape from the sight . can anybody tell me what is that and how it happens . infact this dot is not visible in my eye and my eye looks life fine, but the actual problem lies in the vision. this dot is quite visible in the bright background like on the white papers,painted walls etc. plz tell me how it cab be cured(.)