Thread: Has anyone ever experienced this?

The last 2 mornings I have woke up suddenly and both times I experienced a flash of light in the area of my upper left eye.
The first night, my alarm went off as usual. It was set with the most obnoxious buzzer available on my phone. I woke up and simultaneously had a sensation of being hit on the left temple and a huge flash of light formed at that exact spot. My eyes were closed and the bright light lingered for several seconds.
This morning, I woke suddenly w/o the alarm and simultaneously experienced another flash of light with a lingering afterglow. This time it was more of a peach colored light at the same place by the left temple. Eyes closed. The only other difference was I did not feel like I had been hit up side the head.
Has anyone experienced this?
Does anyone think it is hypnopompia or ever experienced hypnopompia? I have recently has a mri and ct scan, so I don't think its anything really serious. I have heard of migraines having a similar flash of light and halos, but there does not seem to be any lingering affects. No lasting pain.

I was thinking migraine, or some sort of physical pressure, as I was reading this, though the lack of any linguering pain is curious. I've had similar episodes, but without the wack on the side of the head. I tended to blame them on sleeping with my head in a position that put pressure on a specific nerve, and that nerve let me know its displeasure (or relief, I suppose) by releasing a flash of energy when I moved upon waking.

Seems a bit extreme for hypnopompic imagery, I think, but I wouldn't rule it out.

Thank you Sageous. I had not even thought that maybe I had been sleeping in a bad position. That's something to think about. Both times I was on my right side. Last night, or this morning rather, I didn't have this strange thing happen again. I don't even remember what side I woke up on. lol....A few months ago I had conformation that my trigeminal nerve on the right side is being compressed by a artery in the brain making me susceptible to trigeminal neuralgia. From what I read, it can be incredibly painful. At this point, I have only had three episodes of pain in my face associated with trigeminal neuralgia but I get frequent spasms in my face that just drive me nuts. All of that is on the right side though. When I had the mri and ct scan, it was because i was having spasms on both sides of my face. The concern at that time was a tumor pressing on the 5th or 7th cranial nerves at the same time since there was spasm on both sides from brow to jaw. I'm really hoping that something was not missed during those tests. For now, I'll just chalk it up to strange sleep stuff.