Show HN: Bodily Oddities • Hacker News Board

Re: Show HN: Bodily Oddities

#161

Post by ToriTech » Sat, Sep 12, 2026, 7:20 AM UTC

I've had closed-eye hallucinations my entire life. When I was a little kid, I used to be able to see geometric patterns or just sparkles. If I pressed my palm gently over my eyes, I'd be able to change those patterns or make them pulsate. I would spend a lot of time trying to figure out what exactly I was seeing, and then end up falling asleep.

Nowadays I still have them, but they're less vivid and mostly appear as colorful specks or just as lights. It's kind of hard to put into words.

Re: Show HN: Bodily Oddities

#162

Post by snailmailman » Sat, Sep 12, 2026, 7:35 AM UTC

nonfamous wrote: post #33

Fascinating site! TIL the human eye can detect polarization of light (search for “Haidinger's brush”).

Interesting! I’ve definitely seen and noticed this but never looked into it further. The Wikipedia page has an example image that aligns with my experience pretty well.

I get migraines and weird visual auras with them sometimes. I assumed that this phenomenon was related. Didn’t realize I was actually seeing light polarization. These things are often hard to describe and look up. Good to hear that this is likely benign.

Re: Show HN: Bodily Oddities

#163

Post by teekert » Sat, Sep 12, 2026, 7:55 AM UTC

When I slowly shake my shoulders I feel and hear air going from one lung into the other. But not 100% sure if that is what it is.

Re: Show HN: Bodily Oddities

#164

Post by thinkingemote » Sat, Sep 12, 2026, 7:57 AM UTC

ToriTech wrote: post #161

I've had closed-eye hallucinations my entire life. When I was a little kid, I used to be able to see geometric patterns or just sparkles. If I pressed my palm gently over my eyes, I'd be able to change those patterns or make them pulsate. I would spend a lot of time trying to figure out what exactly I was seeing, and then end up falling asleep. Nowadays I still have them, but they're less vivid and mostly appear as c…

It's very common for people to get the pressure on eye thing by the way there's a wiki page somewhere.

Re: Show HN: Bodily Oddities

#165

Post by jwrallie » Sat, Sep 12, 2026, 8:29 AM UTC

antii wrote: post #96

jwrallie wrote: post #44

Something not mentioned that I’m curious about, if I’m about to fall asleep and I happen to hear a loud noise nearby, I also see a flash of light with my closed eyelids.

Exploding head syndrome?

The sounds are real, for example someone will ring the doorbell while I’m about to fall asleep, I'll both hear and “see” the sound.

I do get explosion head syndrome as well, but that is rare in my case.

Re: Show HN: Bodily Oddities

#166

Post by jwrallie » Sat, Sep 12, 2026, 8:32 AM UTC

alch- wrote: post #122

jwrallie wrote: post #44

Something not mentioned that I’m curious about, if I’m about to fall asleep and I happen to hear a loud noise nearby, I also see a flash of light with my closed eyelids.

Could it be that both noise _and_ flash are in your head, and like me you have Exploding Head Syndrome? https://vester.si/bodily-oddities/oddities/exploding-head-sy...

The sounds are real, for example someone will ring the doorbell while I’m about to fall asleep, I'll both hear and “see” the sound.

I do get explosion head syndrome as well, but that is rare in my case.

Re: Show HN: Bodily Oddities

#167

Post by jwrallie » Sat, Sep 12, 2026, 8:33 AM UTC

moonshinefe wrote: post #151

jwrallie wrote: post #44

Something not mentioned that I’m curious about, if I’m about to fall asleep and I happen to hear a loud noise nearby, I also see a flash of light with my closed eyelids.

I've had this many times before too.

Interesting, so it seems there is at least two of us. I assumed this was more common for some reason.

Re: Show HN: Bodily Oddities

#168

Post by WA » Sat, Sep 12, 2026, 8:34 AM UTC

ulrikrasmussen wrote: post #85

The geometric nightmares! I had those as a kid whenever I was very tired or had a fever, and kept having them until my late teens. Never seen them described and didn't know it was a thing.

Had them as a kid. A canvas in beige that spanned my whole view and was the entire world. There was an invisible opponent and we played a game. You filled half of the seemingly infinite canvas with black or a dark blue. Then the other person until no beige remained. I always lost.

Re: Show HN: Bodily Oddities

#169

Post by WA » Sat, Sep 12, 2026, 8:38 AM UTC

Monday is a light brownish, Tuesday black, Wednesday blue, Thursday ochre, Friday dark blue, Saturday white/silver, Sunday black.

January blue, February brownish, March is black and white, April green, May black, June yellow, July darker yellow, August dark green, September ochre, October blue, November brown, December black.

Thanks for coming to my synesthesia TED talk.

Re: Show HN: Bodily Oddities

#170

Post by andai » Sat, Sep 12, 2026, 8:57 AM UTC

zhivota wrote: post #154

andai wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My mum taught me the ear popping thing, while we were traveling by air, to relieve the ear pressure. I can do it on command but never paid attention to how before. It's basically "yawning manually". There's a couple different muscles activating at the same time, most irrelevant to the popping, I can't control them individually yet. (Probably learnable, if I practiced I could probably get the pop more efficiently.) Bu…

For me I describe it more as trying to open your jaw with the muscles near your ear, while holding the jaw in place with the main jaw muscles. Like an isometric hold. I actually didn't know I could do it until now, I could always get the click and it's how I clear ear popping sensations but I didn't realize it I push it harder I get the hollow voice thing and apparently it's useful for diving. Cool.

My jaw also moves in the process but it seems like I can pop my ear without moving my jaw. So it might be a different muscle, I'm not sure.