What Is Visual Snow Syndrome?

What Is Visual Snow Syndrome?

• Are you seeing flashes of light or flickering spots?

• Do you have trouble seeing at night?

• Are you sensitive to light?

• Do you often see an after-image?

... then you might be experiencing symptoms of Visual Snow Syndrome (VSS)

Unpacking Symptoms of Visual Snow Syndrome

1. Visual Snow

Visual Snow Syndrome (VSS) is a brain condition where people constantly see a kind of visual static, like the fuzzy noise on an old TV screen. This "visual snow" doesn’t go away and is always in their field of vision. It can look like tiny flickering dots, which makes it hard to see clearly. 

People with VSS often also struggle with mental health conditions like anxiety and depression, which can make their symptoms feel even worse.

2. Nyctalopia (Night Blindness)

People with Visual Snow Syndrome (VSS) often have trouble seeing in the dark, a condition called nyctalopia. 

Klein et al. (2021) found that this symptom is similar to what’s seen in people with retinal diseases and suggested that almost every part of the visual system might be affected in VSS.

3. Photophobia (Light Sensitivity)

Photophobia means feeling pain or discomfort when exposed to light. For people with VSS who are sensitive to light, wearing tinted lenses might help reduce this discomfort.

4. Entoptic Phenomena

Entoptic phenomena are visual effects that come from inside the eye itself. Klein et al. (2021) suggest that in VSS, these effects may result from how different parts of the brain and visual system are working together abnormally.

Common symptoms of this abnormality are:

• Floaters: Small spots or shapes drifting in vision, possibly due to changes in the gel inside the eye.

• Blue Field Phenomenon: Tiny moving dots seen when looking at a bright sky.

• Self-light of Eye: Seeing a coloured glow or cloud when your eyes are closed.

• Photopsia: Sudden, brief flashes of light in your vision.

5. Palinopsia

Palinopsia is when you keep seeing an image even after the object is gone. It can look like a still after-image or a trailing blur, like a comet (Ciufredda at al., 2024). 

This symptom affects between 33% and 86% of people with Visual Snow Syndrome (VSS) (Klein et al., 2021).

Common Visual Snow Syndrome Associations

• Anxiety

• Depression

• Migraine

• Tinnitus

• Poor Sleep

• Fatigue

• ADHD

• Balance Problems

• Depersonalisation (Solly et al., 2021)