Sudden onset of flashing lights in peripheral vision in dark situations.

I was watering the grass earlier this morning on a very hot and bright sunny day. I came back inside into my house and it was fairly dark. I went to my room to sit for a while and as i stared at my phone i started seeing continuous flashes of light from all sides of my peripheral. The blinking came from the right, left, down,and upward peripheries. The lights were blinking fast and lasted for quite a long time. I was no longer staring at my phone and tried to move my eyes around to see if it would go away. I was experiencing the blinking for more than a half an hour. I dont know where that came from. A few months back i was taking hydrocodon as pain medication for my broken ankle. As of now my ankle is still suffering some tissue damage but i dont take anymore medication. Is it dangerous to be experiencing these blinking visions at 16?

I'm only 37 but I do have Lupus. I've experienced this a handful of times over the past 4 years. It's concerning as it happens all of a sudden and I usually have to sit or lie down. One post I just read on another site said pressure on the optic nerve can cause it to drift into the field of vision. To me that sounds like high blood pressure, which I've never had, but I am under a lot of stress on a regular basis. I plan to mention it at my next rheumatology appointment.

Occasionally, I have, what I call "zig-zag" pattern which comes either in the right or left eye. Just before this occurs, you have the sensation that something just isn't right and when trying to look at something, it's distorted. It's referred to as an "aura". Then, if you close you eyes, you will notice, in which ever eye you can see it, a small bright spot. As time passes, the spot keeps multiplying and moves from the right corner of the eye and across the field of vision to the left side. To me, what it looks like, is the bright sparkly reflection one would see when sun shines on the river. The prominent colors are bright white and blue, rather diamond shaped. Always, it lasts 15 to 20 minutes, then goes away. It may not recur for months or year's, then again you can have several times within a week. My ophthalmologist told me she experiences these as well and many people do.
It is not a disease or dangerous and has nothing to do with the eye itself, but the brain. Some people experience a migraine headache after this occurs, but I've never had this, thank goodness.

I too experienced flashing lights, in the periphery of my left eye, yesterday.  They were flashing - but not lights,  more like little strokes of black like eyelashes for instance, but they were not my eye lashes. This happened as I got back into the car after purchasing diesel, and after having had a chinese meal for lunch.  Simultaneously I could taste the sauce again, and as I wondered what was causing this vision problem, thought perhaps there was MSG in the meal.  I never eat MSG and avoid additives and colours too.  My 2 cents worth, as others have mentioned "additives" may have been the cause for them.   After 10 minutes the flashing disappeared. 

I had not known the possible relationship with "additives" as you say. At least it gives one another perspective. Interesting. My "episodes" seems to have occurred more times in the past two months, than the entire last six months of last year or first of this year. Never has it occurred in both eyes at same time with me. Just weird though!

After several hours of various frustrations with depths of involvement that I could step away from each entanglement for the time being, I headed to the lottery machine with moments to spare and behold, my money  / bill jammed the machine and it had to be opened and reset. Tic-toc goes the clock and wa-la, all is good with 13 seconds to spare (some life, eh?). Then, getting back to my car, I noticed the peripheral aura of seemingly colorful neon or balloons used for twisting into animal shapes, twirling around the bottom portion of my vision. I thought it was some environmental illumination distortion, and drove 2 blocks home with it occuring along the way. I realized it was me, something went wild, and the light was spinning about randomly within likes of a hollow circle or donut cut in half. Why the lights were confined in a tubular bottom half of a U, well, I'm glad they didn't assume 100% of my vision, perhaps only 5%, but it was quite noticeable and it did have a repetitious order to it. I thought it was my right eye, but most of the occurence happened lower left or my 7 O'clock (of my right eye?). I was in motion the entire time, so I could not study it while it lasted. The wild card variable for me today was I ate a Home Depot hotdog after shopping there, as they smelled so good, was hungry, and it's been a loooong time since I ate one (I generally eat little meat, this may have shocked my system). I do feel light headed, lathargic, a little dizzy, and think the blood in my head is bumping along erratically, all while typing this, sipping along on a Coca-Cola and smoking M-boro silvers, wondering if I'm stabilized to resume, well, nothing ... go to sleep and wake up OK or different tomorrow. It would be a shame to have won the lottery and to have dropped dead from this. Staring into this monitor for the last 1 1/2 hours seeking info and typing my 2 cents here, I'm done with today's adventures with kaleidoscope eyes. Good Luck To All! What's this now, an eye twitch!? Dare I say "to be continued"?

Just a follow-up; didn't win the lotto, of course, and haven't had whatever episode of light show reoccur since. I attribute the adventure to the hot dog I ate, as I went back to Home Depot to return an item and smelled the same food in the air as the day of the light effect. I did develope a slight headache at Home Depot, so it may be for me an adverse food allergy to whatever is in the hot dog. I already know I have a petrochemical sensitivity, where such as Lysol spray , perfumes, and the smell of oil change places for cars triggers weak knees, dizziness, metallic taste in mouth, and sudden tiredness which all lasts between 1/2 to 2 hours, depending on the exposure. So all is good otherwise and back to whatever normal is for me. One more thought or observation is that I may have floaters, as similiar visual distortions in the form of a single clear circle or donut shape pops into my off center forward view perhaps once a month for a second or two and then is gone. This has been happening for several years and dimissed it as "an over 50" blip due to aging. The paranoia in me suggests it may be a parasite from water up the nose or from breathing all kinds of dust from an old apartment building where I work part time and live in, which whatever organic matter may have attached itself via sinus membrane, then infiltrating my eyes & whatever else (eye twitch?). My immune and digestive systems probably need a "tweaking", perhaps with a variety of probiotics and go further into vegetarian lifestyle. Good Luck To All!

Im 16 and I had this problem while I was using a barbecue at night with family. I looked out into the dark and all of sudden I started seeing strange flashes of white lights similar to stars or somone pointing a small torch at you. I was the only one seeing this. I moved inside and it was gone but as soon as I got out side and looked into the dark it appeared again. My parents think its nothing and are very slack on seeing a doctor. Strangely this was only happening to my right eye. Single light continuous flashes

This describes me. Can you advise me?

I HAD THE SAME THING HAPPEN TO ME ON A THUR NIGHT SAW THE FLASHING LIGHTS IN MY LEFT EYE IT WILL BE TWO WEEKS THUR WENT TO EYE DR LAST TUES HE SAID MY EYES WERE FINE I GO BACK IN 3 MONTHS AND I STILL HAVE THE FLASHING LIGHTS HOPEFULLY I WONT HAVE THEM IN 3 MONTHS

Unfortunately I had the same experience as many of you describe. Three months after it started I suffered a stroke that left me with visual field loss in 25% of each eye. After the fact, I saw an eye specialist who said my eyes were fine and that the light reflections I was seeing was caused by lack of blood flow to the visual center of my brain. Many doctors are unaware of this symptom of strokes. When I arrived to ER the night it happened, unable to speak, see or move my right arm, some doctors believed I was having some sort of migraine attack.....until the MRI results.
I am a 44 year old registered nurse with no prior medical history and my only warning was the lights. Turned out I have 20% blockage of my Left carotid artery, which is believed to be the cause of the infarct to my left parietal artery.

They are your spirit guides encouraging you to stay on track!

Did he have cataract surgery ?

I'm 15 and I have been having flashing in either side of my head it happens in near darkness right as I'm about to go to sleep it usually star talks me and it only happens once I do have a bad sting atoms so that may be a cause but other then that i have no idea why it happens

I had the flashes of light in my peripheral vision about 3 months ago and 6 days ago I had surgery for a detached retina. My advice to anyone with this symptom is to see an ophthalmologist as soon as possible. At the time of the detachment I saw a large, obtrusive floater, then I saw swirls of blood in my eye, which dissipated completely in about 10 minutes. I went to the emergency room and while there I developed an area of abnormal vision that would sometimes just appear dark and sometimes appear shiny like a ball bearing. The next day I had surgery. At the present time I am 5 days post-op. I had a vitrectomy and a gas bubble, but no buckle. The upper part of my visual field is through the liquid that is slowly replacing the gas. My vision through that area is very good. I don't see any waviness or floaters. Something to keep in mind when you read internet posts about a medical problem is that people with worse outcomes are much more likely to make a remark than the people with better outcomes. The same thing happens with remarks about software - satisfied customers rarely make posts on the internet. My brother had a retinal detachment, too, but he waited a long time, maybe about a week, before seeing a doctor. Nevertheless, he had pretty good results. Don't be like him! You might spend the rest of your life regretting it.