Darkness
Nyctophobia, also known as the fear of darkness is something everyone can relate to at one point in their lives. It seems like there is something about dark corners that instantly seems scarier than anything else when you’re at home alone or simply lying in bed before you fall asleep. For some, they simply grow out of it as they get older but is it really gone.
I’ve realized that over the years my relation with darkness constantly changes. I’ve gone through various stages where I slept with a nightlight, then a flashlight until I simply stopped altogether. The darkness wasn’t scaring me anymore and I would spend hours just sitting in dark places where I could barely see my hands. At that time I believed I had finally gotten over it. However, some years after I realized that taking all the lights off started scaring me again. Now I experience bouts of fear every now and then. Sometimes I revel in darkness, other times I try to keep out of it so I never really thought that I was afraid of the dark.
Scientists say it’s a natural human response that we have developed from years of living in the wild were predators would hide under the cover of darkness to attack us. Which makes perfect sense when you really think about it, as natural adaptation would occur as a means for our survival so we would be more alert in dark places.
With that in mind, think of all the other times you’ve been terrified in a dark place and couldn’t explain why you suddenly felt that way. If our natural response in the darkness is towards being preyed upon, then you’re most likely reacting to something in the darkness. Something you can’t see. Something that makes the bumps you hear in the night. Something that can see you but you can’t see it.
So the next time you think that you’re simply afraid of the dark remember, it’s not the dark you’re afraid of…but what’s in it
What is in the dark?!
