Are you seeing imprinted images with your eyes when closed?

Asked by msh (4270) December 23rd, 2015 from iPhone

If I am looking at something, like a book, or plants in flower pots- anything, really, and I close my eyes, the images of what I was just looking at, are still there. Almost perfectly. They then start to fade out, but it takes a couple of moments to be gone and the solid color of my closed eyes ( lids), returns. What I may be looking at doesn’t have be anything bright like a phone or computer screen, either. I tend to keep the brightness turned a little lower for comfort, anyway. Sensitivity might that be a factor? Are those little brain synapses filing the vision- and its detail away in memory as it fades?
At what point does your ocular nerve let go of the image to let it fade away? Is the fading view in the eye, itself? Or is it the fading of the image inside the brain?
Am I alone in this?
I know when people look at the bright flashes of fireworks, your retina retains the image, even with your eyes open. But if it is just a matter of closing one’s eyes- why would this imprint so heavily/clearly? I do have an attention to details in everyday eyesight. Does that make it so vivid when I close my eyes?