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