Visual snow syndrome - Wikipedia

Visual snow syndrome is a brain condition that makes a person see tiny, flickering dots everywhere they look, just like the fuzzy static on an old television screen.

Imagine looking through a window that is always covered in tiny, dancing specks of dust or buzzing TV static. Even when you close your eyes or sit in a completely dark room, the fuzzy dots do not go away.

People with this condition often experience other strange visual problems:

• Static dots: Seeing millions of tiny clear, black, or colored dots covering everything in sight all day and night.
• Trailing pictures: Seeing an object leave a ghostly "trail" behind it when it moves, like a glowing sparkler in the dark.
• Light sensitivity: Finding bright lights, sunshine, or screens painful to look at.
• Extra noises: Hearing a constant ringing or buzzing sound in the ears, which is called tinnitus.
• Headaches: Having frequent and painful head aches called migraines.

Doctors know this is not a problem with the eyes themselves, but rather a problem with how the brain processes what the eyes see. The brain gets too excited and forgets how to filter out background visual "noise," so it shows that noise all the time.

Scientists are still studying this syndrome to fully understand what causes it, and right now, there is no known cure, though doctors are testing different ways to help make it easier to live with.