Fear of the dark

The fear of the dark is a common fear among children and to a varying degree is observed for adults. The pathological fear of the dark is sometimes called nyctophobia (from Greek νυξ nic-to-pho-bi-a: "night" and phobia), scotophobia, from σκότος - "darkness", or lygophobia, from lyge - "twilight".

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The fear of the dark is heightened by imagination: a stuffed toy may appear a monster in the dark. Nightmares contribute to the fear of the dark as well: after waking up because of nightmare the child may refuse to go to bed without lights on. Fear of dark is a phase of child development.^[1] Most observers report that fear of the dark seldom appears before the age of 2 years.^[2] Fear of the dark is not fear of the absence of light, but fear of possible or imagined dangers concealed by the darkness.^[3]

Some researchers, beginning with Sigmund Freud ^[4] consider the fear of the dark as a manifestation of separation anxiety.^{[citation needed]}

In 1960s scientists conducted experiments to discover molecules responsible for memory. In one experiment rats, normally nocturnal animals, were conditioned to fear the dark and a substance, called scotophobin that was apparently responsible for remembering this fear was extracted from rats' brains. Subsequently these findings were debunked. ^[5]

References

1. ^ Adele Pillitteri (2006) "Maternal and Child Health Nursing", ISBN 0781777763
2. ^ Arthur T Jersild (2007) "Children's Fears", ISBN 1406758272, p. 173
3. ^ William Lyons (1985) "Emotion", ISBN 0521316391 p. 75
4. ^ Sigmund Freud, 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.' "
5. ^ Louis Neal Irwin (2006) "Scotophobin: Darkness at the Dawn of the Search for Memory Molecules", ISBN 0761835806