Why do I see strange patterns when I rub my eyes?

Long working or studying time

People's eyes are prone to fatigue

Many people will rub their eyes involuntarily.

Sober yourself up

Then roll up your sleeves and get to work

When you rub your eyes

Have you noticed that there will be

Some weird patterns

It's like seeing a "new world"

…

What's going on?

Did you rub your eyes?

Don't rush

Next, I'll tell you

How did the "New World" in our eyes come about?

↓↓

It turns out that the phenomenon of seeing patterns by rubbing your eyes is called "phosphenes". That is to say, even when no light enters the eyes, people can still feel light, and the most common one is flashes of light.

Inside the human eyeball, there is a neuron called retinal ganglion cell, whose main job is to receive information that people see, and this information comes from the photoreceptor cells on the retina (the inner membrane of the eyeball wall).

The reason why we can see the colorful world is that when light enters the eyes, it stimulates these photoreceptor cells, and then they feed back to the neurons. However, these cells cannot distinguish the type of stimulation at all, so when you press your eyes, they are under pressure and become activated, thinking that light is coming, and the "phosphene" phenomenon will occur.

I would like to remind everyone that you should think twice before rubbing your eyes. After all, our hands come into contact with many things every day, and it is inevitable that they will be contaminated with many bacteria or viruses. Rubbing your eyes can easily bring these things into your eyes, causing eye inflammation and other eye diseases.

In short, be careful when rubbing your eyes! If you must rub your eyes, be sure to wash your hands, then close your eyes and rub gently.

Reviewer of this article: Xu Qibin, associate chief physician, deputy director of the Department of Ophthalmology, Zhejiang Provincial Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine