Like other types of migraine, harsh lights and electronic screens can be triggers. Straining your eyes by staring at a screen for long periods of time, spending time in fluorescent or other harsh lighting, driving long distances and other taxing visual activities can increase your risk for attacks.
Harsh lighting, long screen time, other visual strain, stress, dehydration, food additives, and other causes all may trigger an ocular migraine, a subtype that focuses in the eye and causes vision changes.
Symptoms of digital eyestrain include headaches, especially around the eyes and temples, dry, itching or burning eyes, and blurry vision. Poor posture while viewing screens also can cause headaches by straining the neck and back.
In fact, according to one study review, anywhere from 64% to 90% of computer users studied reported some kind of symptoms, including eyestrain, dry eye, and screen headaches. And eyestrain itself can be a migraine trigger for some, so computer screen headaches may be even more common.
If you suffer from migraines – a type of headache that causes severe throbbing or pulsing pain on one or both sides of the head – screen time can aggravate any associated light sensitivity. Eye strain, brightness, blue light and screen flickering can be migraine triggers.
Even for healthy eyes and brains, staring at your phone screen for a lengthy period of time can lead to headaches and/or eye symptoms for nearly one-third of people.
It's rare. Some research suggests that in many cases, the symptoms are due to other problems. Other migraine attacks can also cause vision problems. An aura migraine can involve flashing lights and blind spots.
A typical ocular migraine will last for roughly 30 minutes, usually affecting one eye at a time.
Ocular migraine, or migraine with aura, and stroke are two different conditions. Having an attack doesn't mean you're having a stroke or are about to have one. However, research has shown that people with migraine with aura are at an increased risk of stroke.
If you have visual symptoms that have not previously been evaluated by a health care provider, you should see a provider if you have any of the following: Visual changes in only one eye. Visual changes that last less than five minutes and more than 60 minutes. Visual changes without a headache.
In general, migraines likely involve alterations of blood flow to certain regions of the brain. In the case of ocular migraines, the involved area is the vision center of the brain.
Retinal Migraine. People may use the terms ocular migraine and retinal migraine to mean the same thing, but there are some important differences. An ocular migraine generally occurs in both eyes. A retinal migraine is rare and tends to occur in just one eye, when vessels that supply the eye with blood narrow.
People with ocular migraines can have a variety of visual symptoms. Typically you will see a small, enlarging blind spot (scotoma) in your central vision with bright, flickering lights (scintillations) or a shimmering zig-zag line (metamorphopsia) inside the blind spot.
Diagnosing an Ocular Migraine
If you are experiencing any kind of impairment to your vision similar to the symptoms above, it is always important to discuss those with your doctor. A neurologist can help a patient distinguish between whether they are experiencing migraine aura or more serious retinal migraines.
But during a migraine, these stimuli feel like an all-out assault. The result: The brain produces an outsize reaction to the trigger, its electrical system (mis)firing on all cylinders. This electrical activity causes a change in blood flow to the brain, which in turn affects the brain's nerves, causing pain.
The most substantial evidence for magnesium's effectiveness is in patients who have or have had aura with their migraine. It is believed magnesium may prevent the wave of brain signaling, called cortical spreading depression, which produces the visual and sensory changes in the common forms of aura.
Dehydration is one of several triggers that can exacerbate migraine headaches, including migraine variants like the one you are experiencing. Maintaining good hydration should help reduce the frequency of these visual migraines, which are also known as acephalgic migraine.
Episodes of migrainous visual symptoms in mid or late life are not rare and occur in 1.33% of women and 1.08% of men. These episodes may occur for the first time after age 50 years, in the absence of headache, and a history of recurrent headaches may not be present.
When your eyes are constantly straining to see properly, it could trigger a migraine. Having a comprehensive eye exam by a trusted eye doctor is one step you can take to make sure poor vision is one less thing that could trigger a migraine for you.
Focal seizures and seizure aura can mimic migraine aura. Visual migraine aura can be confused for occipital seizures and vice versa, although symptoms are classically distinct.
These tense muscles press on the eye nerves located on the back of your neck, and the flow of blood to your eyes becomes restricted. This results in frequent headaches or migraines, as well as throbbing around your temples, nausea, vomiting and blurred vision.
Stress is a common trigger of migraine headaches, including ocular migraine headaches. Since anxiety causes stress, anxiety is a common cause of migraine headaches, including ocular migraine headaches.
Can I have a visual migraine without a headache? Definitely. It is actually very common to have a visual migraine without any headache. The medical term for this is “acephalgic migraine,” which literally means migraine symptoms without headache.