3D Red Grid Mystery

A Glitch in the Matrix

This afternoon I wasn't feeling well, so I laid down for a nap and fell asleep. A little while later, my youngest son came into the room saying, "Daddy, I need to go to the washroom". I woke up and opened my eyes.

I was facing towards the door, and there in that corner of the room I could clearly see a large, red, 3D grid covering that entire corner of the room. The lines were not very bright, but they formed a perfect laser-like red grid. I closed my eyes for a second and opened them again. The grid was still there.

My son repeated, "Daddy, I need to go to the washroom". I turned to him and responded, "Okay, Daddy will come help you". He ran off to the washroom and I looked back towards the door. The grid was gone and didn't return. I got up and went to help my son in the washroom.

What was the grid?

• Light projected from an electronic device like a tablet or toy that was unexpectedly turned on? No, there were none present in the room.
• Light from outside? No, the curtains were closed.
• A dream? No, I woke up and conversed with a real person.
• A visual artifact in my eyes such as a floater, visual migraine, or aura? No, I've experienced these before and the grid was unlike any visual disturbance I've experienced before or since.
• A glitch in the matrix? The appearance of the grid reminded me of the holodeck on the show "Star Trek: The Next Generation" when it malfunctioned and caused the projection grid to be visible. I'm not aware of being stuck in a virtual reality simulation, although some scientists do claim to have proof that our reality is a simulation. Could it be that something caused that portion of the scene to fail to render?

I still have no satisfactory explanation for what the grid was. For now, it will have to remain a mystery.