Humans have an uncanny ability to make out shapes and faces in the dark that aren’t really there. We do this because our brain is deprived of visual information to form a complete picture, because, well… it’s dark. So our brain simply fills in the blanks without telling us. But the fact that we see things in the dark that aren’t really there, isn’t the reason we’re afraid of the black of the night. So what is?
We are most afraid of the dark when we’re four to six years old. This fear tapers off by the time we reach the age of nine, but it never truly goes away. Some adults are considerably more afraid of the dark than others, but there’s a part of all of us that has an apprehension towards dark places. In a poll, 40% of adults admitted to feeling scared walking around their own home in the dark. And 10% of adults are too afraid of the dark to even get out of bed if the lights aren’t on.
A severe fear of the dark is called nyctophobia. If you’re particularly afraid of the dark, you might think it could help to sleep with the lights on. But you may unwittingly be doing harm to your brain. A study at Ohio State University discovered that sleeping with the lights on, damages your brain and increases the likelihood of depression. This is because when its dark our brain produces a hormone called Melatonin. Created in the pineal gland, melatonin helps to regulate your body’s sleep cycle. When we don’t get enough sleep or sleep in a room that isn’t entirely dark, our melatonin production is severely inhibited. Over time a lack of melatonin can have negative consequences on our body. Such as: Your brain will age faster. Melatonin depravation speeds up the rate at which your brain ages. Researchers think that the elderly often have more trouble sleeping because their brain doesn’t produce as much melatonin as younger individuals. Which may also contribute to the degradation of brain function that some people suffer from, during old age. A lack of melatonin can also lead to a condition known as S.A.D., short for Seasonal Affective Disorder. SAD is associated with sufferers of depression. Sufferers of SAD have an altered schedule for melatonin release. SAD suffers don’t produce melatonin until later on in their sleep cycle, meaning they get less melatonin overall. This can eventually lead to worsening depression, bipolar disorder, eating disorders and schizophrenia. Melatonin deprivation has also been linked to increases in blood pressure and cancer rates.
Health concerns aside, it’s a damn good job that we are afraid of the dark, and you shouldn’t be ashamed of it, because believe it or not, being scared has its advantages. Especially when it’s dark. Human kind’s fear of the darkness stems from the days of early humanity, long before we evolved into modern humans.
Humans haven’t always been at the top of the food chain. Before the advent of the hunter-gatherer, and for quite a while afterwards, us humans were the hunted ones. Our earliest human-like ancestors first appeared around seven million years ago. Although, humans didn’t first step foot off the African continent and into the Middle East, until 1.75 million years ago. That’s a long, long time that humans had to defend themselves against the myriad of natural threats that they shared the African planes with. Until we learnt to defend ourselves, humans were under constant threat from animals such as lions, hippos, crocodiles, rhinos and snakes. Our early human ancestors didn’t stand a chance against a pride of lions, without modern tools or shelter. This problem was made even worse during the night. Predators used the pitch black of the night to their advantage. A lonely defenseless human wandering the planes of Africa didn’t stand a chance in the dark. After all, lions and other predators can see in the dark considerably better than humans. In fact, 60% of lion attacks in Tanzania between 1988 and 2009 were between the dark hour of 6pm and 9:45pm. Because of this, humans developed an instinctive fear of the dark. That feeling of anxiousness you get when you’re trekking through a dark place is an ancient reaction that humans have developed to warn us, that dark places are dangerous. Especially so, because in the dark, we can’t see where we’re going and we have no idea what hostile creature might be coming towards us.
The emotion that is anxiety is just a tool our body uses to get the job done and that job is keeping us safe in the dark. Over millions of years this fear has been fine tuned by both nature and nurture to keep us safe from the perils of the night. You see it’s not just natural selection that enforces this fear. Millions of years of children seeing their parents become afraid when going out at night has helped to reinforce and improve human kind’s ability to stay anxious and fearful of the dark. This ability may not be as relevant nowadays, because we no longer have to contend with ferocious wild animals on a daily basis. But even in our modern world, the night still holds many threats, mostly of the human variety. So we should be very thankful for our fear of the dark, because it offers at least a modicum of protection, constantly reminding us not to tread where danger may lurk.
We are most afraid of the dark when we’re four to six years old. This fear tapers off by the time we reach the age of nine, but it never truly goes away. Some adults are considerably more afraid of the dark than others, but there’s a part of all of us that has an apprehension towards dark places. In a poll, 40% of adults admitted to feeling scared walking around their own home in the dark. And 10% of adults are too afraid of the dark to even get out of bed if the lights aren’t on.
A severe fear of the dark is called nyctophobia. If you’re particularly afraid of the dark, you might think it could help to sleep with the lights on. But you may unwittingly be doing harm to your brain. A study at Ohio State University discovered that sleeping with the lights on, damages your brain and increases the likelihood of depression. This is because when its dark our brain produces a hormone called Melatonin. Created in the pineal gland, melatonin helps to regulate your body’s sleep cycle. When we don’t get enough sleep or sleep in a room that isn’t entirely dark, our melatonin production is severely inhibited. Over time a lack of melatonin can have negative consequences on our body. Such as: Your brain will age faster. Melatonin depravation speeds up the rate at which your brain ages. Researchers think that the elderly often have more trouble sleeping because their brain doesn’t produce as much melatonin as younger individuals. Which may also contribute to the degradation of brain function that some people suffer from, during old age. A lack of melatonin can also lead to a condition known as S.A.D., short for Seasonal Affective Disorder. SAD is associated with sufferers of depression. Sufferers of SAD have an altered schedule for melatonin release. SAD suffers don’t produce melatonin until later on in their sleep cycle, meaning they get less melatonin overall. This can eventually lead to worsening depression, bipolar disorder, eating disorders and schizophrenia. Melatonin deprivation has also been linked to increases in blood pressure and cancer rates.
Health concerns aside, it’s a damn good job that we are afraid of the dark, and you shouldn’t be ashamed of it, because believe it or not, being scared has its advantages. Especially when it’s dark. Human kind’s fear of the darkness stems from the days of early humanity, long before we evolved into modern humans.
Humans haven’t always been at the top of the food chain. Before the advent of the hunter-gatherer, and for quite a while afterwards, us humans were the hunted ones. Our earliest human-like ancestors first appeared around seven million years ago. Although, humans didn’t first step foot off the African continent and into the Middle East, until 1.75 million years ago. That’s a long, long time that humans had to defend themselves against the myriad of natural threats that they shared the African planes with. Until we learnt to defend ourselves, humans were under constant threat from animals such as lions, hippos, crocodiles, rhinos and snakes. Our early human ancestors didn’t stand a chance against a pride of lions, without modern tools or shelter. This problem was made even worse during the night. Predators used the pitch black of the night to their advantage. A lonely defenseless human wandering the planes of Africa didn’t stand a chance in the dark. After all, lions and other predators can see in the dark considerably better than humans. In fact, 60% of lion attacks in Tanzania between 1988 and 2009 were between the dark hour of 6pm and 9:45pm. Because of this, humans developed an instinctive fear of the dark. That feeling of anxiousness you get when you’re trekking through a dark place is an ancient reaction that humans have developed to warn us, that dark places are dangerous. Especially so, because in the dark, we can’t see where we’re going and we have no idea what hostile creature might be coming towards us.
The emotion that is anxiety is just a tool our body uses to get the job done and that job is keeping us safe in the dark. Over millions of years this fear has been fine tuned by both nature and nurture to keep us safe from the perils of the night. You see it’s not just natural selection that enforces this fear. Millions of years of children seeing their parents become afraid when going out at night has helped to reinforce and improve human kind’s ability to stay anxious and fearful of the dark. This ability may not be as relevant nowadays, because we no longer have to contend with ferocious wild animals on a daily basis. But even in our modern world, the night still holds many threats, mostly of the human variety. So we should be very thankful for our fear of the dark, because it offers at least a modicum of protection, constantly reminding us not to tread where danger may lurk.
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