With migraines you often get what’s called a visual disturbance, or an aura. This can be jagged, broken lines of colour, or it can be spots or smears of light, it can even be blind spots that move across your line of vision. One time, when I was out running, I got a blind spot in both eyes that crept across to meet in the middle, and I had to run for ten minutes with only peripheral vision.
I have chronic migraines and often get them while I’m asleep, and the visual disturbance can appear in my dreams as a sort of curtain of coloured lights, and when that happens I’m amazed that my brain can create such a perfect, uniform grid of colours. Other times it takes the form of complete blindness while I’m dreaming – it’s like someone has switched off the light. This darkness is often accompanied by nightmares.
Last night I dreamt I was blind and someone was standing on my neck trying to kill me. In my dream I played dead, hoping they’d go away. Then a vampire lady appeared beside my head, singing softly to me, the song was lovely, I remember, and at first I thought, keep on playing dead, then I thought no, she’s going to drain me so better to go down fighting, and I leapt at her.
I leapt out of bed cursing and throwing punches at thin air.