Nyctophobia is a phobia characterized by a severe fear of the dark. These findings were subsequently debunked. 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. Īn alternate theory was posited in the 1960s, when scientists conducted experiments in a search for molecules responsible for memory. Some researchers, beginning with Sigmund Freud, consider the fear of the dark to be a manifestation of separation anxiety disorder. 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'). Most observers report that fear of the dark seldom appears before the age of 2 years. Some degree of fear of the dark is natural, especially as a phase of child development. 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.
(Linocut by the artist Ethel Spowers (1927).)įear of the dark is a common fear or phobia among children and, to a varying degree, adults. Artistic depiction of a child afraid of the dark and frightened by his shadow.
