The impact unleashes a burst of energy, causing the brain to think it sees a series of twinkling lights out of any order or shape. However, this interesting effect did not last too long.
If you’ve never run into anything in your life, you’re in luck, and it’s time to step out of the nest of comfort and safety. Each of us has at least once crashed into an open closet door, tripped over our heads, or got hit in the head with a long, square wooden stick. In addition to feeling…pain and headaches, there is one thing that only happens when we have a head injury: we will see countless stars flying by.
A hard blow to the head will make you see countless stars whizzing by.
If hit too hard, you won’t be able to see anything, but somewhere between a stun and a knock that knocks you out, the “flying star” phenomenon will occur. Why?
According to ScienceABC, humans have evolved over hundreds of thousands of years to protect the most important part of our body, the brain . Human gray matter is covered with something called cerebrospinal fluid, which acts as a pillow for the brain. When you turn your head suddenly, bang your forehead against a table, or are rocking to your favorite song, your brain will move with the impact, but not so hard against the edges of the skull.
The brain will move with the impact, but without hitting the edges of the skull too hard.
However, in more severe cases, when we hit our heads with greater velocity (or when an object flies towards us at high speed, something else happens. For example, getting punched in the face. when we hit our face with our fist, our skull is pushed back, and that’s when the skull wall hits the front part of our brain when we fall and hit our head on the ground , the skull will lean forward and its wall will now touch the back of the brain – called the occipital lobe . This very rapid action can disrupt blood flow in this area of the brain and also can affect a large number of nerve cells in the back of the head.
The rapid movement of the skull and its impact on the brain is what makes us “see the stars” , because the occipital lobe is where the visual cortex is located.
When we open our eyes and look around, nerve impulses are translated into images in the tissues of the visual cortex. This is basically how we see the world around us. However, when these tissues are impacted violently (when the skull hits the occipital lobe), the nerve cells in the back of the head release an electromagnetic pulse, which travels through the nerve tissue. .
“Seeing stars” is a harmless effect, but anything that makes you see those stars has the potential to do real damage to your mental health.
It is this sudden burst of energy that tricks our brain into thinking it is seeing a series of twinkling lights out of order or shape. This effect does not last long, and when the tissues return to normal, the pressure on the nerve cells is reduced, the stars will gradually disappear. “Seeing stars” is a harmless effect, but anything that makes you see those stars has the potential to do real damage to your mental health.
You can create a similar experience yourself by rubbing your eyes in the morning when you wake up. By rubbing your eyes, you’re putting abnormal pressure on the optical cells at the back of your eye, sending a cascade of misleading signals to the visual cortex and forcing it to process those signals. As above, disruption of normal blood flow and pressure will create false “star” images, which are basically just random electromagnetic pulses that pass through your optic nerve center. .
While lying down at night looking up at the sky is a poetic pleasure, having a head injury that makes you “see the stars” is certainly not something to be taken lightly. Protect your brain at all costs!