Do you have a habit of sleeping with the lights on? Or do you often suffer from insomnia due to being haunted by fear of the dark?
According to Martin Antony, a psychology professor at the University of Toronto (Canada), the fear of the dark arises very naturally in our thoughts, as if it has been pre-programmed. Fears such as heights, spiders, snakes, and darkness stem from what could pose a danger to our ancestors.
Unlike other species, humans greatly depend on vision for survival. In darkness, our eyesight becomes ineffective, and we cannot detect who or what is around us.
If there are predators or hidden dangers lurking in the dark, humans might not be able to see or identify them.
Through the process of evolution and natural selection, humans gradually “remembered” these fears.
This is not merely a psychological issue but rather a trait formed during the survival process, a rule to remember for survival: darkness creates favorable conditions for lurking predators, and thus it should be avoided.
Experts suggest that the fear of darkness is embedded in the genetic code of humanity: our ancestors feared the night due to the threat of being preyed upon by nocturnal predators. Another reason, explained by Sigmund Freud (Austrian neurologist and psychoanalyst), is that the human fear of darkness is related to the fear of being separated from the Mother or anxiety when the Mother is absent.
The early ancestors of humans, before the advent of groundbreaking inventions like fire, were just a lower part of the food chain and faced a large number of natural enemies, such as Dinofelis, leopards, giant cats, hyenas, and spotted hyenas in caves.
Before hominins evolved into humans, they might not have feared the dark while living in forests. However, human ancestors left their “safe zones” and ventured into grasslands, beginning to walk upright and adapting to an environment entirely different from the wooded areas. Here, there were fiercer predators, and they had excellent night vision. In this case, those human ancestors who did not fear the dark and dared to walk in it were preyed upon by these predators.
These natural enemies were all nocturnal creatures, especially some large cat species that posed the greatest threat to our ancestors, with some even evolving special teeth to break the hard skulls of primates.
In fact, not only the fear of darkness but the fear of other things is also part of natural selection, helping us avoid dangers to increase our chances of survival. We are all descendants of those who thrived through the process of evolution.
Moreover, human vision did not evolve to see clearly at night. When faced with darkness, humans always feel there is a monster hiding within that darkness, ready to pounce and devour them at any moment – this was the daily life of our ancestors for two million years.
This brutal natural selection lasted from the time of Australopithecus until before Homo sapiens emerged. In the remains of Homo erectus, a large number of bones were lost from the cheek area and bore the marks of hyena and large cat teeth. Such a long period of natural selection was sufficient to eliminate individuals who were not sensitive to danger; most survivors were the “timid” ones, lacking the courage to roam at night.
But is darkness truly frightening? Or does it still have benefits for humans? In this infographic, we will explore the human fear of darkness, the causes behind it, and how to manage that fear.
When to Seek Medical Intervention?
Parents should monitor their children’s fears and observe whether these fears affect their normal activities or health. When a fear hinders daily life, impacting relationships, learning, and general activities, there may be more causes than those mentioned above.
If the anxiety related to darkness is uncontrollable for more than six months, treatment options such as relaxation techniques or meditation should be considered to alleviate anxiety symptoms, or consult a doctor or psychologist to discuss treatment methods.
