I think It’s safe to say that every one of us went through a phase where we were terrified of the dark. We all thought there were ghosts and monsters in our room when we were kids, and I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t nearly pushed my partner over in an attempt to run away from strange noises when we walk home at night. Spoiler alert, it’s always a possum.
It’s a universal human experience, so why are we so scared of the dark?
Turns out it’s an evolutionary thing. These days humans are at the tip top of the food pyramid with houses to keep scary things away from us, but we weren’t always that way. Back in the day, night time was fraught with danger. Not only was our visibility way below what it is during the day, but everything that felt like munching away on a human sandwich was roaming around in search of a meal. Bad combination.
Our ancestors had to be on high alert to survive the night. If they weren’t getting anxious about their surroundings once the sun went down, they would become literal minced meat.
It’s not just a fear of the dark that’s left over from our caveman days. According to this study by Isaac M. Marks and Randolph M. Nesse, we’ve evolved to have fears of “snakes, spiders, heights, storms, thunder, lightning, darkness, blood, strangers, social scrutiny, separation, and leaving the home range.”
In extreme cases, people can be diagnosed with Nyctophobia. This is when a regular anxiety of darkness balloons out into a full blown phobia, and fear of the dark starts affecting people’s daily lives and relationships. According to a UK survey, 10% of adults are too scared to get out of bed and go to the bathroom in the pitch black.
The good news is that with therapy, it’s possible to bring that phobia back down to a regular level of fear.
If you are feeling brave and want hang out with all sorts of things that go bump in the night, check out Fremantle Prison’s Torchlight Tour. Explore the darker side of history and hear tales of executions gone wrong, of the innocent unjustly imprisoned and the guilty punished.