Eli5: Rubbing my eyes world.

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Exactly what am I seeing when I rub my eyes and everything gets all blue and purple and spotty?

In: Biology

Anonymous 0 Comments

Your eyes are very sensitive organs, and are filled with fluid. When you rub your eyes, or look at a bright light and get an afterimage, you’re doing the same thing in different ways: over-stimulating your retina.

Think of it like memory foam. When you push on the foam, it holds the imprint of your hand for a few seconds but ends up going back to normal.

When you push on your eye the fluid tries to compress and ends up pressing on the back, when you look at a bright light the part of your eye takes time to adjust back to normal. That part of your eye is “on” and holding the image for a few seconds while it “bounces back”.