What Causes Blurred Vision Following Exposure To A Strong Beam Of Sunlight?

Posted on Thu, 29 May 2014

Question: I was driving home in the mid morning today. As I passed a line of trees that I have driven past for years, flashes of sunlight came at speed between the trees like a camera flash in rapid succession.It made me feel very uncomfortable in a way I have never experienced before. My vision started to rapidly dim, and my eyesight became very blurry. I felt as if I was about to lose my sight, and tried to clear my eyes by blinking. This did not help--and so I slowed down to find a place to stop. Once I had passed the last of the trees my vision started to settle. I felt very unnerved by this. Had it continued -might my vision have disappeared?

Answered by Dr. Dadapeer K (1 hour later)

Brief Answer:
Vision loss would not have occurred.

Detailed Answer:
Hello Madam
Welcome to Health care magic

I am Dr Dadapeer k, an ophthalmologist andI aanswer health problems related to eye.

It seems from the history that you had blurring of vision following exposure to a strong beam of sunlight.

Since on exposure to strong source of light the photoreceptors in our eye undergo bleaching they take some time to regenerate and this explains blurring of vision for sometime and it clears with time as the photoreceptors become normal.
This is normal no need to worry.
Loss of vision occurs only on glaring sun during solar eclipse as harmful ultraviolet rays are emitted at the time of eclipse. Otherwise just a flash of sunlight will not cause any problem.

Hope I have answered your question and the information is helpful to you.

Thank you

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar

Follow up: Dr. Dadapeer K (17 hours later)

Finally I have seen your answer. Since the source of light was filtered through the trees on my left, and was in my peripheral vision, I do not understand how the "bleaching" could occur. I was not looking INTO the sun.It was no more than a minute or two afterwards, for my vision to normalise, but the speed at which it had started to fade and fuzz when it happened, made it dangerous for driving. Fortunately there were no other cars around at the time. Living in Australia, I am constantly exposed to strong sunlight. Why would it suddenly happen now, when it has never happened to me before?

Answered by Dr. Dadapeer K (1 hour later)

Brief Answer:
Need to rule out Transient loss of vision & glare

Detailed Answer:
Hello Madam
Welcome to Health care magic

Thank you for the follow up query.

If the light flash was not strong enough and as you have told that you were not looking into the light, then we need to consider other causes like

Transient loss of vision or amaurosis fugax: Here there is momentary loss of total or a part of the vision and it recovers completely within few minutes. Most of them may not have underlying disease but needs to rule out vascular causes and atherosclerosis. But this condition is not related to driving or exposure to light.

Glare: It is intolerance to bright light and is seen in age related changes in the lens causing sclerosis of the lens resulting in scattering of light and blurring of vision.

Hence we need to consider the above mentioned two causes, transient loss of vision and glare and these two have to be ruled out.

Hope I have answered your question.

Thank you

With regards

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar