What Is Visual Snow Syndrome?

This rare condition is not a type of migraine

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Visual snow syndrome is a disorder where people see tiny, flickering dots in their entire visual field. 

These dots are often similar to "snow" or "static," like you'd see on an old television. It is usually black and white but can also appear as flashing, colored, or even transparent.

For years, visual snow syndrome was thought to be a form of migraine. However, it is now recognized as a visual processing problem unrelated to headaches.

There are no tests for visual snow syndrome. It is diagnosed based on symptom history and ruling out other causes. It is treated with tinted glasses, adaptive strategies, and sometimes medication.

This article discusses visual snow syndrome and its symptoms, causes, and diagnosis. It also explains the treatment options for visual snow syndrome.

How Common Is Visual Snow Syndrome?

Virtual snow syndrome is classified as a rare disease, but it is unclear how many people are affected. Some experts estimate up to 2.2% of the population may be affected in some way.

visual snow syndrome

Verywell / Emily Roberts

What Are the Symptoms of Visual Snow Syndrome?

Most people with visual snow syndrome see tiny dots across their visual field, even though they otherwise have no changes in their ability to see. The dots may get worse after looking at a screen for a long time or during times of high stress.

Visual Symptoms

The snow in your visual field isn't the only symptom of this condition. Other disabling visual symptoms can occur, such as:

  • Floaters, the small shapes you may see in your visual field
  • Photopsia, the starbursts or flashes of light that may suggest a health issue
  • Nyctalopia, or impaired night vision
  • Kaleidoscope vision, the color swirls often seen with migraines
  • Palinopsia, or seeing something that isn't there anymore
  • Photophobia, a heightened or unusual light sensitivity
A photo showing what visual snow syndrome can look like compared to clear vision.

Noel Hendrickson / Getty Images

Non-Visual Symptoms

With visual snow syndrome, there may be other symptoms besides what you see. Symptoms that are not vision-related include:

  • Migraine, a disabling headache often linked to visual migraine aura symptoms
  • Tinnitus, or ringing in the ears
  • Vertigo, a sense of spinning or dizziness, or balance loss
  • Fatigue, unusual exhaustion often related to another health issue
  • Tremors, an uncontrollable motion in your body, often the hands
  • Anxiety, a mild to severe response to stress
  • Depression, a mood disorder associated with feelings of sadness and fatigue

What Are the Causes of Visual Snow Syndrome?

Scientists don't know for sure what causes visual snow syndrome. It appears to be a complex neurological disorder.

Studies have shown that people with this syndrome have a brain abnormality in their lingual gyrus. This is a structure in the occipital lobe, which is located in the back of the brain.

Because visual pathways meet in the occipital lobe, experts think an abnormality in vision processing might cause visual snow syndrome.

The nerve cells in the brains of people with visual snow syndrome may be too responsive to visual stimuli. These very sensitive nerve cells mistakenly send signals to the brain. The brain interprets them as real images.

Risk Factors

Visual snow syndrome is more common in people who were born male and often first occurs in childhood. It is also more common in people who have:

  • Anxiety
  • ADHD
  • Autism spectrum disorder
  • Depression
  • Dyslexia
  • Fibromyalgia
  • History of hallucinogenic drug use
  • Migraine with aura
  • Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome
  • Tinnitus
  • Traumatic brain injury (TBI)

With TBI, visual snow can occur alongside other post-injury symptoms like headache. It can happen immediately or anytime up to 12 weeks after a head injury.

Migraine Connection

Many people with visual snow syndrome also experience migraines, but the syndrome itself is not a migraine. Research shows slightly more than half of people with visual snow syndrome also experience migraines, in particular migraine with auras (flashes of color or light). Migraines have also been shown to exacerbate visual snow symptoms.

How Is Visual Snow Syndrome Diagnosed?

There are no specific tests that can diagnose visual snow syndrome. To make this diagnosis, your healthcare provider will:

  • Take a health history
  • Complete a physical examination
  • Refer you for an eye exam
  • Conduct a neurological exam

Before diagnosing visual snow syndrome, other medical conditions need to be ruled out. This may involve seeing a neurologist, an ophthalmologist, and a psychologist.

The diagnosis will be made if you have seen "snow" or "static" consistently for longer than three months and have additional symptoms, such as:

  • Impaired night vision
  • Migraines
  • Other visual changes, such as seeing floating objects, colored waves or clouds when closing your eyes in the dark, or tiny dots or rings in both eyes when looking at a bright surface, such as the blue sky
  • Seeing something when it is no longer there
  • Sensitivity to light
  • Tinnitus

A History of Misdiagnosis

In the past, people with visual snow syndrome were often misdiagnosed. Common misdiagnoses include:

  • Migraine
  • Psychogenic disorder, which means the symptoms have a psychological root
  • Post-hallucinogenic drug use flashback

Most people with visual snow syndrome, however, have no history of drug abuse. Their symptoms also don't get better with standard migraine treatment.

Today, healthcare providers know more about visual snow syndrome and are better at spotting it. If you think you have the condition but were diagnosed with something else, consider getting a second opinion.

How Is Visual Snow Syndrome Treated?

When visual snow is due to another health condition, such as TBI or migraine, treatment addresses the underlying cause.

Pain medication, anti-epileptics, and migraine prophylaxis are sometimes helpful for treating visual snow. These include:

  • Aleve (naproxen)
  • Lamictal (lamotrigine)
  • Palmor (nortriptyline)
  • Topamax (topiramate)
  • Tegretol (carbamazepine)
  • Zoloft (sertraline)

However, these medications are often hit or miss, do not appear to be especially effective, and can have unpleasant side effects.

For example, the research found the anti-seizure medication Lamictal was most effective in treating visual snow. However, it only relieved symptoms for about one-fifth of patients, and half of those experienced considerable side effects.

Another possible treatment is repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation 410 (TMS). A technique used to treat Alzheimer's and migraines, TMS uses magnetic pulses applied to the brain. However, its effectiveness in treating visual snow syndrome is still unclear.

Visual snow is often problematic when reading. Tips for making reading easier include:

  • Avoiding bright reading lights
  • Puting a bookmark or ruler under lines of text to prevent the eye from skipping lines
  • Using dull-colored paper, such as off-white, instead of bright white

Tinted lenses may also be helpful. For example, FL-41 lenses, which have a rose-colored tint, filter out certain blue and green wavelengths and may decrease visual snow.

Summary

Visual snow syndrome is uncommon. People with this syndrome see small dots like snow or static in their field of vision. Researchers think the syndrome may be caused by an abnormality in part of the brain. 

In the past, people with this syndrome were often misdiagnosed with migraines or other disorders. If you think you've been misdiagnosed, get a second opinion.

Healthcare providers don't yet know how to treat visual snow syndrome. Anti-seizure medication and antidepressants have worked for some patients. However, more research is needed.

Frequently Asked Questions

  • At what age does visual snow start?

    One study of 1,104 people who have visual snow symptoms found that their symptoms began early in life, and about 40% said they'd been affected for as long as they can remember. Their average age was 29 at the time of the study.

  • Is visual snow a symptom of anxiety?

    It can be associated with anxiety, but that doesn't appear to be the case in all people. A study of 125 people with visual snow syndrome found higher rates of anxiety, depression, poor sleep quality, and fatigue. It also found stronger links in people with dissociative behaviors and that the symptoms were more severe in people with psychiatric symptoms.

  • Can visual snow be cured?

    Researchers continue to learn more about this visual processing disorder, but as yet, there is no definitive cure for visual snow syndrome. That said, treatment is available for underlying causes, if present. Your healthcare provider can help you to understand what may help in your specific case.

15 Sources
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
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Additional Reading
Colleen Doherty, MD

By Colleen Doherty, MD
 Colleen Doherty, MD, is a board-certified internist living with multiple sclerosis.