Visual Migraine – Shimmering Light
by Anna Hart
Filed under Chronic Migraine Symptoms
Visual migraine. What is it? The term seems to imply that it is one of those excruciating headaches that remove you from circulation for 3 or 3 days. A visual migraine may not do that, however. It may occur without headache.
Visual migraine is probably responsible for many of the wonderful events and descriptions of the classic children’s book, Alice in Wonderland. In one scene, Alice sees things on shelves, but they are always moving. They keep slipping into her peripheral vision. When she tries to look at something directly, it suddenly “moves” to a shelf above or below, or off to the side.
Shimmering Light of a Visual Migraine
Visual migraine is a temporary visual disturbance without the headache of a migraine. A visual migraine is caused by a vascular spasm in the sufferer’s brain. While this may be true of other migraine, this spasm results in decreased blood flow to the part of the brain associated with vision.
Visual migraine often manifests itself with a sensation of a shimmering light in the peripheral vision. The light might be described like sunlight on a glassy ocean or lake. Others might say it resembles heat waves rising from a hot road.
With the shimmering light of visual migraine may come other light – flashing and pulsating light. This, too, is in the peripheral vision. Direct vision seems not to be affected.
Blurred, Distorted Vision of a Visual Migraine
With the lights, the person may notice that his or her vision is blurred, probably on one side or the other. The lights are within the blur. This kind of blurred vision is called a positive scotoma. The word “scotoma” means blind spot. It is called positive because there is something happening inside the blind spot of a visual migraine.
Duration of Visual Migraine
A visual migraine usually lasts only 10 to 30 minutes. It goes away, and although it is followed by a mild headache in about half of sufferers, the other half experience no headache at all.
Treatment of Visual Migraine
No treatment is needed for visual migraine. Usually, visual migraine is triggered by stress or fatigue. In women, it may also be triggered by changing estrogen levels.
CAUTION: On rare occasions visual migraine is associated with other, more serious problems. Please consult your physician or ophthalmologist when symptoms such as the above occur.
The symptoms above are exactly what I am experiencing.
My concern is that the symptoms seem to be increasing in frequency over time. I have begun to chart the events to see if there is any correlation. I have also begun to note which eye it is occuring in. With the increase in frequency, should I be concerened that these events are part of a bigger problem?
I have had these symptoms for the last 25 years (65 now). On average, I have 3 attacks over 2 days, every other month. There appears to be no recognisable trigger, and it has occurred during sleep. The shimmering starts as a small area in the centre of vision and moves to the periphery of the eye. It can be ‘C’ shaped or reverse ‘C’ shape. Afterwards I can experience a headache for a couple of days – but only if I cough!