Eyes sunburn. (BEWARE!)

[windscar]

A few days ago I acidentally stared the sun briefly on a beach. A little sunmark burned into my eye, appearing everytime I blink. My eyes got red like this image for the rest of the day. Now, 4 days has passed and I still see the sunburn each time I blink. It's on my left eye. Reading this site they gave a very accurate description of my symptons and mentioned psychedelics:

A person is at a great risk when he or she stares directly at the sun with no eye protection whatsoever. This can damage or even destroy the cells in the central retina of the eye, which can lead to vision impairment. Some may eventually recover their vision, but there are many unlucky ones who go blind after this. This condition is common in people who are viewing solar eclipses, as well as people who stare at the sun under the influence of psychedelic drugs.

So I'd like to:

1) Warn you guys to be very careful with this. It makes sense that HPPDers could be more sensitive to sunburns and it's a serious condition.

2) Ask if anyone relates to this.

[Nedd]

Cheers for the heads up matey, I've experienced similar with looking into bright lights, but nothing as bad as this.

Hope all goes well in recovering from this

[Still_here]

I get this too. Though not so bad as to last 4 days. I regularly get little "burns" where I keep seeing the light for ages afterwards.

Also the comment about psychadelics is nothing to do with HPPD sorry. It stems from a stupid rumour that kids stare at the sun while taking psychadelics leaving some blind, its an old wives tale used to scare teens out of drug use.

[windscar]

It's a correlation anyway, so best avoid.

[projectid]

I did something like this. It was pretty bad and the little sun spot lasted for a couple years. But it did go away and 10 years later I'm not blind, so I think it's all ok.

[VisualDude]

It seems to me that 'burn in' and 'negative afterimages' are the same thing, though perhaps there are multiple kinds of negative afterimages.

Increasing dopamine greatly improves this symptom - though I've never had any sort of burn in beyond a few minutes.

Unclear is the role of dopamine. It is known to adjust signal level from the photo-receptor. But generally, burn in involves the time it takes for the chemeicals in photoreceptors to regenerate. There is such a high metabolic need in humans that we actually have "inverted retinas" (neurons in front of the photoreceptor). For all receptors to regenerate (such as snow blindness or bombers wearing red googles in preperation for a mission) takes about 45 minutes. So a 4 day burn in must involve recovering from an injury (which staring at the sun might cause an individual).

Two years, WOW. But even that healed -- something we all should note positively regarding recovery from HPPD.

[alice-acid]

AFEW YEARS?!!!?!! wow thats unbelievable ive never had 1 lasting more than like afew hours before O:

[Guest Guest]

Well, 10+ days and I can still see it. It's certainly better than the first day, but I'm not sure if it is still getting better. I find it weird that by the end of the day it starts getting more and more noticeable.

About 4 days ago a very similar mark appeared on my right eye, near the middle of the vision, but thank thank thank it disappeared.