At night, If we watched the lights on the road with eyes half closed, everything seems blurred into perpendicular lines. If you tilt your head, and all lines should be tilted, too, a sign that it happened in the eyes.
The problem here is the reflection of light on a tear in the upper eyelid and lower lip, the reflection of water in miniature. Eyes saw a bright light is normal, because the reflection coupled with tears. When eyes almost closed, tears flooded fit directly in front of the pupil, so the reflected light formed a long lines at the retina.