Please help explain this

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Ok, so I'm 14 and I'm still scared of the dark. Embarrassing I know. But the wierd thing is that I prefer the night to the dark because it is darker and quieter and just more peacefull. And I really cant work out what is going on here!

Yes, people can be full of confusing, contradicting stuff. The quiet and peacefulness of night-time is easier on us because of our mental and sensory processing issues. A quieter environment makes it easier for us to deal with stuff. Noisier, busier environments make life harder for us, so we usually prefer the quieter environments. However, it is still possible to be afraid of the darkness itself. I am not afraid of the dark, just of blundering into something or tripping and falling in the dark, so I keep a dim light on when I sleep at night, so I won't get hurt if I have to use the bathroom. Because of health problems I have an irregular sleep/wake cycle and sometimes fall asleep in the daytime and wake when it's dark. When that happens, there is no light on, but I don't mind the dark. I tend to stay there for a while, enjoying the peacefulness, before getting up and turning on a light.

If your fear of the dark is really a problem, get some pix of Chuck Norris to keep around. The bogey man under the bed, and the monster in the closet are afraid of him!

There's nothing wrong with having a night light.

My alarm clock projects lights on the ceiling, so it's never completely dark in my room.

My sister has a night light too, it's a blue glowing ball with a little projector built into it. She always has colorful fish on her ceiling at night. It's a cool night light.

I'm still scared of the dark and I'm 18. I just recently realized this is something I should have grown out of by now. Tried to keep a nightlight but I just kept me up.

I like it to be dark when I sleep. When I was little I liked dark, but the idea of things coming out of my closet, or from the shadows in the corner of my room scared me. What eventually helped was closing the door to the closet, taking all large objects off the floor, and turning to face the wall when I was going to sleep. If I remember right, it worked very quickly, within a few weeks it probably wasn't an issue anymore.

Well, I think being afraid of the dark is a rational fear that all humans have. Since we have evolved darkness has always meant danger. It is when predators come out and hunt for food. It is cold. Anything could happen. Now that we have electricity and heat we don't worry about it as much, but if you notice people still subconsciously cling to light. In the winter when it gets dark faster people head home around 4 pm even though in the summer they were out until eight.

Sorry if I'm not making any sense....

There is nothing to work out! It's a preference of yours. So what? My son (13) is the same way as you. I'm 51 and I am happy that my clock radio is so bright that it lights up the room at bedtime. I can't sleep in total darkness. It's impossible!

We humans evolved in order to survive. Throughout the bulk of our history, darkness has been dangerous. Predators, stepping off a cliff by accident, predators, enemy tribes, and predators. And did I mention predators?

Natural selection caused those who feared the dark to stay cowering in their houses at night, while those who did not went hunting in the middle of the night. The latter group died very often while out on their nocturnal expeditions, so were able to have less offspring. Those that feared the night overran the population, because they were better equipped to survive. A similar process would have caused the widespread appearance of many other fears, including the fear of heights.

So many have thought fear a weakness, but it can also be a strength, depending on what it is you fear and whether it poses actual danger to you, directly or indirectly.