I'm 14 and still afraid of the dark.

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Im 14 and i sleep with my celing light on and my lamp. I dont like the dark cuz i hate not being able to see things. I also shut and lock my bedroom door when i sleap so i dont have to see the darkness thats outside my room.

Ever since I discovered Jeff The Killer about 4 months ago, I have never been able to remember my dreams, but I know they start out contorted, shadowy, and uncertain. I will never get a nightlight though. I don't want people to think I'm a p****.
The odd thing is, I've never been afraid of the dark before

I'm 18 and I've been terrified of the dark for pretty much my entire life. I've always slept with a nightlight. I never knew why I was afraid of the dark but I have a theory now.

A lot of my thoughts are visual, and I can see some of them quite vividly. Adding vivid visual thoughts to tiredness, especially in somebody like me who has a tendency to be a bit paranoid, is a bad combination.

I start to 'see' things in the dark, usually quite frightening things, and because I'm so tired and not thinking properly I can't tell if it's real or not. If I have my nightlight on I can distinguish better between my thoughts and things that are actually present in the room with me.

Historically, a human fear of the dark stemmed from our lack of night vision and inability to see predators. Around the time of the Australopithecus (ancient apes that closest resembled what we know today as hominids), the apes exchanged their night vision (lots of rods, few cones) for colour vision (lots of cones, fewer rods) so that they could pick fruit out of trees. So, fear of the dark is literally, perfectly natural. I'm 19 and still afraid of the dark (especially pitch blackness; makes me panic and feel like I've gone blind). Oddly enough, natural dark, outside with lots of stars, while still making me uneasy, doesn't bother me as much as the artificial darkness of a house at night, I guess it's because there are so many more unnatural shadows and patches of eerie light to be misinterpreted by an overactive mind.

I'm nearly 17 and I am, too.

I'm also 14 and am still scared of the dark.
I'm not diagnosed with anything but am currently trying to sum up the courage and talk to my parents.
I also have a friend who says he is not afraid of the dark its self, he is terrified of what is in the dark. To be hones that could be the actual fear.

I wish you good luck with telling them; if your parents are more like your friends or are easy to talk to, then they'll listen and help you as much as you can. However, be aware of them being in denial and not believing what you tell them; I had this experience with both my dad and my sister. Another good tip would be to show them the characteristics of what you think you may have and explain in detail why you might have it. Once you're sure that you have it, you may want to book to ask your parents to book an appointment with your doctor. At this appointment you'll have the opportunity to arise this matter with them- like would've done with your parents, and they could help you from there.

By the way, you are talking about Autism Spectrum Disorders, right?

I was until my late 20s. I'm 48 now and one of my best friends still cannot sleep in a dark room. She is also ex military and said it was hell when she was forced to while in the Air Force. She came over to stay with me for a week or so last year after she had a little nervous breakdown and she was even afraid to sleep alone in a brightly lit room here. She had to have the lights on, the closet doors open, the bedroom door shut and locked and look under the bed first etc. And I had to sleep in there with her.

Then again she had just seen her husband (my ex husband) shoot this friend of theirs in her house cause he was mad. And being ridiculous about things. So that was why she needed all the excess, but she still doesn't sleep in the dark.

I went and stayed for a week or so with her and new new/old guy (back with her high school bf now) last summer, just a few months after that little incident. She still has to have the light on, like she has ever since we were in high school, but she is able to lay down and go to sleep alone without anybody in there with her.

I think a lot of it with me was that I didn't fall asleep right away so my mind wandered and I thought of scary things. It also felt like because I couldn't see anything in the room, that I had no control over my environment. Eventually I was able to use a night light but at first the dim light just distorted objects in there, but I got used to it and now I mostly like to sleep in the dark. It's not a big deal unless you are sharing a room with someone who can't stand any light at night.

Yeah I used to be very terrified but now I'm more like Batman and can conform in the darkness around me. Plus darkness can be cool. I mean sometimes I can use it to be scary but mostly I like it due to the feeling of warmth.

I'm 21 and I'm so afraid of dark...and I need somebody around at night or else it's hard to sleep...and like even if I do sleep I usually end up waking up in the middle of the night and then it's even more difficult!

Some NTs have this problem, it's actually pretty normal. In fact it's one of the main causes of Insomnia.

This is actually a total natural reaction. We stopped being able to see in the dark well some time ago, so its gentic that we stay away from it. The people not scared of the dark? They go out in night to hunt. Not come back.
Connection to darkness as bad and the sun as good yata evolution blah DNA.
I don't know if this is something I have learned through observing or an article or a combination.
Anyway, studying all that might make you feel better. I think that kind of thing is interesting, maybe you don't.
Personally, I like staying away from the dark (RUN ON YOUR BED AFTER YOU TURN OFF THE LIGHT AS FAST AS YOU CAN!) (<--Plenty of people your age and older do that, including me.)) But I admire it as well (Cave darkness is just pure creepy, I mean I think nighttime is pretty).

Sorry if someone else has already said that.

Not especially. When I was around ten I went through a horror movie phase and a fear of the dark resulted from that for awhile, but I got over it. Recently I went through something crazy and it has reawakened a bit.

I used to be terrified of the dark, but I'm not anymore.

I'm 21 and still terrified of the dark. Don't worry, you're not alone.

Hi.
When I was younger (I'm going to be 23) I just couldn't sleep without a night light. Sometimes I ended up having slept with my bedside lamp on, which is not really good. Then there came this moment when I changed and needed absolute dark to sleep... but I've still problems with dark. Sometimes I'm scared, for no real reason. I have too much imagination when it concerns things that could be hidden in my bedroom so as to do I-don't know what with me ; it's in some way linked to the fact I much more often feel in danger than the usual person, even when there is no reason behind it.
The thing you can do is trying to rationalize. You've already slept for thousands of nights at your age, and nothing bad happened. It can help sometimes.