Common fear or phobia among children and, to a varying degree, adults
For other uses, see Fear of the dark (disambiguation).
Artistic depiction of a child afraid of the dark and frightened by their shadow. (Linocut by the artist Ethel Spowers (1927).)
Fear of the dark is a common fear or phobia among children and, to a varying degree, adults. A fear of the dark does not always concern darkness itself; it can also be a fear of possible or imagined dangers concealed by darkness. When waking or sleeping, these fears may intertwine with sighting sleep paralysis demons.[1] Some degree of fear of the dark is natural, especially as a phase of child development.[2] Most observers report that fear of the dark rarely appears before the age of two years.[3] When fear of the dark reaches a degree that is severe enough to be considered pathological, it is sometimes called scotophobia (from σκότος – "darkness"), or lygophobia (from λυγή – "twilight").
Some researchers, beginning with Sigmund Freud, consider the fear of the dark to be a manifestation of separation anxiety disorder.[4]
An alternate theory was posited in the 1960s, when scientists conducted experiments in a search for molecules responsible for memory. In one experiment, rats, normally nocturnal animals, were conditioned to fear the dark and a substance called "scotophobin" was supposedly extracted from the rats' brains; this substance was claimed to be responsible for remembering this fear. These findings were subsequently debunked.[5]
^William Lyons (1985). Emotion. p. 75. ISBN 0-521-31639-1.
^Adele Pillitteri (1995). Maternal and Child Health Nursing. ISBN 0-397-55113-4.
^Jersild, Arthur T. (2007). Children's Fears. Read Books. p. 173. ISBN 978-1-4067-5827-6. Retrieved 5 July 2017.]
^Sigmund Freud (1916). Vorlesungen zur Einführung in die Psychoanalyse [Introduction to Psychoanalysis]. I once heard a child who was afraid of the darkness call out: 'Auntie, talk to me, I'm frightened.' 'But what good will that do? You can't see me?' To which the child replied: 'If someone talks, it gets lighter.'
^Irwin, Louis Neal (October 2006). Scotophobin: Darkness at the Dawn of the Search for Memory Molecules(paperback). Hamilton Books. ISBN 0-7618-3580-6. Retrieved 5 July 2017.
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