White flash of light in the room at night

Question

i came back from holiday in italy a week ago. while on holiday me and my brother slept in the same room. one night we were awake and couldn't fall asleep, it was about 1 am. i had my eyes closed and suddenly there was a very bright flash of white light. everything just went white for what seemed like less than a second. the best way to describe it would be like a camera flash right in my face but faster. at first i thought it seemed to me but than my brother said he saw it too and he described exactly what i saw.

it was not any light in the room as they weren't nearly as bright. it wasn't a mobile phone. it wasn't lightning because the skies were completley clear. it also wasn't anything outside as the shutters were closed and the room was completly dark.

sorry for the wall of text

does anyone have any idea of what it could have been??

Answer 1

The unstimulated brain makes it's own pictures.  It is inside not outside.

Answer 2

You sure it wasn't from outside?  Some meteors explode when they hit the atmosphere and make a big flash--they are called bolides.  They are usually too high up in the atmosphere to transmit noise down to you.  I have seen this type of flash once before, and I ran to my window and saw the glowing ion tail of a meteor with a big glowing burst at one end.  A big meteor can leave a glowing tail that lasts for a few seconds to a few minutes.   Lightning can also flash from clouds that are too far for you to see.

If you were on vacation and you had cameras, maybe one of them accidentally flashed?  Or an electrical appliance or light bulb shorted out and created an electrical arc?  That would be much brighter than a light bulb.  You would have heard a little "pop," though.  I bet some of the wiring in Italy is not up to the highest standards.  Also, transformers and powerlines can explode in bright flashes as well, but these happen outside and also are followed by a "boom."  

If you're absolutely sure that your brother saw it too, then it would be unlikely to be a mini seizure or something in your brain.  But how about carbon monoxide poisoning?  Any chance there was an old furnace, fire, or barbecue nearby?  Many haunted house experiences turn out to be CO poisoning.  Many family members are convinced it is paranormal because they all see and feel the same strange feelings, only to find out later by their furnace repairman (if they don't die first) that they were just all poisoned by the same noxious gas.

Your hotel wasn't sitting above any type of high energy supercollider or nuclear research facility, was it?  

It's just suspicious that you were both awake and couldn't fall asleep.  Sometimes weather and lightning can unconsciously keep you awake, or again, some sort of air poisoning could have kept you awake and caused that sensation.    

Answer 3

I have this fluorescent lamp that flashes once up to an hour or so after it gets turned off.  I suspect it is because the ballast capacitor shorts and discharges through the tube, but that is just a guess.  In a darkened room the flash of light is dazzling, much brighter and whiter than the lamp itself when on.  A lot of European hotels have overhead fluorescent lights, perhaps what you and your brother saw was something similar?  Googling "fluorescent light flash" might turn up an explanation.