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You are here: Home / Your Body / Why Do You See Stars If You Bang Your Head?

Why Do You See Stars If You Bang Your Head?

March 11, 2020 by Karen Hill

You may have heard someone say, “I bumped my head so hard, I saw stars!”

What he thought were stars was really a flash of bright light, a trick played on him by the optic nerve, which goes from all parts of the eye to the brain.

A hard bump on the head stimulates the optic nerve.

It then sends a message to the brain, which translates the “bump” message as a burst of light, which most people describe as “seeing stars.”

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Filed Under: Your Body

About Karen Hill

Karen Hill is a freelance writer, editor, and columnist. Born in New York, her work has appeared in the Examiner, Yahoo News, Buzzfeed, among others.

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