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I've had them since about the age of 11, and have tried to predict/identify what sets them off.
You'll be pleased to know - that I have (as of 21st October, 2002) identified their cause - medical world - take note!!
We all have Flashes and Floaters - bugger - I was just about to put a Link here to a web-site I'd visited years ago which explained Flashes and Floaters - but when going to it today - I actually found a more informative one - http://www.apagrafix.com/patiented/floaters/floaters.htm - and in there - it comments that Flashes can cause/be associated with Migraine headaches.
Well - that was what I was going so say!! They stole my thunder!! Read their page and I'll just add a little extra......
My theory is - that a Flash occurs at a spot - just as a Floater is passing over that spot - this starts the broiling, pulsing, flashing spectacle - which over 20 minutes gets to occupy the whole of one eye's vision. It is initially only the Floater which is flashing/pulsing, but this spreads - maybe because the Floater is moving around the field of vision, or maybe because that's what it does - a bit like a fire started in one spot - eating its way outwards from that spot. This so confuses the brain - normally a reliable view coming in through one eye - and a distorted view coming in the other eye - that it gets a headache.
Update!! Update!! As at May 2003 - I remembered that someone said our eyes.. we don't actually see through all of them.... just a small hole which doesn't cover all that we want to see - so we move it around - and the brain fills in "memorised bits' of a few seconds ago - to make the picture we 'think' we see in one shot. Well... I reckon that small hole together with what I say above is all mixed up in migraine headaches somehow!!
Here are my pictures of what it all looks like:
Normal view/vision - would you believe - a sand-dune
With Floaters - more noticeable in bright light
With Flashes - these occur for only a split-second
With a Floater crossing where a Flash occurs - the
Flash seems to ignite the Floater
The ignited Floater starts expanding outwards
After maybe 5 minutes - still expanding outwards, from here on - the easiest way
to see objects straight ahead - is to look sideways at them.
After about 20 minutes, central visibility returns, and the ignited Floater
seems to expand out of sight - perfect clarity for a few minutes - then the
Migraine headache starts.