Expert reveals why you sometimes might see ‘stars’ in your eyes

If you see sparkles of light in your vision, there might be a few causes that you’ve been unaware of causing it.

While it’s perfectly normal to see sparkles on a rare occasion, particularly if you’ve looked directly into the sun or the flash of a camera, this type of effect is a little more serious.

Troy Bedinghaus, OD, an expert who wrote for Very Well, explained that it’s called photopsia, which describes little stars of light that disturbs your vision.

While it can be due to pressure on the eye, if it lasts for a long time, you’ll need to seek treatment for an underlying cause.

When you see these visual disturbances, it might come in the form of sparkles, streaks or prisms.

It can also come at the same times as a period of stress, or when you have a migraine.

Troy Bedinghaus shared why people see stars (Igor Sinkov/Getty images)

Why do you see stars?

Seeing stars typically occurs when the back of your retina senses something other than light and sends messages to the optic nerve, which then relays this to the brain which then comes up with an image.

Known as phosphenes, these stars can happen when something presses your eyes, or when the nerve cells in the brain or eye are stimulated abnormally.

Bedinghaus explained that pressure to your eyes could be from things like sneezing hard, coughing a lot, straining on the toilet, rubbing your eyes too much or vomiting.

It should only last seconds unless there is something else at play.

What else causes seeing stars?

When you see stars for a long period of time or often, there are a lot of things that can be causing it.

• Migraine headaches, which are also known as migraines with aura

They usually last for around 20 to 30 minutes, and can make you see blind spots in your vision, flashes of light, rainbow-like prisms, stars or sparkles, or even zig-zag lines.

• Posterior vitreous detachment

The expert said: "Posterior vitreous detachment (PVD) is a common condition caused by aging that affects the vitreous in your eyeballs."

He said there are a number of underlying causes (Peter Cade/Getty Images)

• Diabetic Retinopathy

Some people with untreated diabetes may develop this condition which occurs when high blood sugar damages the little blood vessels in the retina.

These vessels can then go on to leak blood and fluids into the macula. Once this happens it can cause blurred vision, double vision and tunnel vision.

It can also put pressure inside of the eyeball, causing visual disturbances like sparkles.

It’s a serious condition that can actually cause vision loss if your blood sugar isn’t regulated.

Bedinghaus shared: "The leakage can also increase pressure inside the eyeball, compressing the retina and causing visual disturbances like sparkles of glitter-like specks of light."

• Preecmampsia

Preeclampsia is another condition that causes a person to see stars and sparkles, and it’s incredibly dangerous to leave this condition untreated.

Our vision can tell us a lot about our health (Getty Stock Image)

Bedinghaus shared that preeclampsia is something that pregnant women develop and happens when there is persistent high blood pressure after around week 20.

The person will notice headaches, abdominal pain, blurred vision and flashing lights, as well as rapid swelling of the feet.

However, visual disturbances are usually the first signs of preeclampsia and seeking help right away could potentially save your life and your unborn baby.

How do I treat seeing stars?

Treating photopsia is down to the underlying cause.

While some people can be treated for the photopsia directly, others need to rectify the underlying cause first.