Here I am in my mid-30s and darkness still really creeps me out. It doesn’t help that I live in the countryside, and my house backs up to a serious forest. Sometimes just looking into this wall of blackness makes the hair on my neck stand up.
As a pathetic case in point, a friend brought her dog over one weekend during a visit, the beast got past the fence, and so I volunteered to go look for him out in the woods. Huge mistake. There was a new moon and all I could think of was “Twin Peaks,” the Red Room, and crazy Bob on the prowl. I’m talking so scared that, when I found myself several hundred yards from the house (even with a flashlight), I nearly had a panic attack.
Even in the middle of night, when in bed, sometimes the darkness creeps me out. God forbid that the wood floors start creaking or a shrub/branch rubs against the house during a windy night, or my floodlights outside suddenly snap on.
You know, I’m very rarely afraid of the dark, except under one circumstances. When I’ve seen something creepy about aliens, I’m very afraid of aliens for some time afterwards. And aliens only strike in the dark; you’re entirely safe from all aliens during strong daylight. So yes, sometimes, I am afraid of the dark.
I’m twenty-one and up until a year or two ago, I was so scared of the dark that I couldn’t sleep without my door open and the hallway light on. I sometimes still get scared if I hear a creak unexpectedly.
Also, there is no way in hell that you will get me in a dark enclosed space. Nope, nuh uh… no way. Even if someone I love is in there and dying. It was nice knowing you… I’ll name my first-born after you.
I don’t like returning home alone after dark. And on nights when Mr. S works, I usually either walk the dogs before it gets dark, or leave them out in their pen until he gets homes to walk them. (We live out in the sticks, so “walking the dogs” means me walking along the path that circles behind the barn, while they romp in our adjacent yard and fields. Lots of wild critters out there that I don’t care to meet!)
I’ve always been afraid of the dark, had to have the door open and the hall light on and God help my parents if the bulb burned out. I’ve had poor vision and worn Coke-bottle glasses since I was 9, so the shadows looked creepy to my blurry little eyes.
I only spent one night alone in a house my whole life before my divorce and I have always had nightlights as an adult. So I could get up to see to the kids, you understand…in case they needed me…when we eventually had children. I remarried last year and my husband can sleep with every light in the house on, but I sleep in the dark mostly. I keep my glasses within easy reach and I fall asleep quickly and Drachillix keeps his Glock loaded within his easy reach. After witnessing him when we thought we had a break-in, I sleep fine in the dark. When I had to stay in a motel by myself this April, though, could hardly sleep at all even with the bathroom light on all night.
But see if you could sleep in a Motel6 in Bakersfield!
It depends on how I’m feeling. Some days, I’ll be wandering around the house in complete darkness and all I’m scared off is tripping over something and falling down the stairs and dying. Other times, I just get a creepy vibe and I don’t want to stay in the dark. I turn on all lights possible, and if it’s time for me to sleep, I flick the lights off and dive into my bed under the covers. Everyone knows that nothing can get you after you’re under the covers.
I’m OK in my own house but I’m terrified in a strange place when it gets dark, even a hotel room. I once lost my bearings in a dark hotel room and kept trying to walk through the mirror.
I’m only afraid of the dark in one very specific situation; the hall light on the ground floor in my house can only be switched off from the bottom of the stairs, meaning that I have to ascend the stairs with darkness behind me and light up ahead (upstairs). For some reason, I am often overcome with the sense that something is following me up the stairs and I have to run.
The oddness is that with all of the house lights turned off, I’m calm and can ascend the stairs without fear - it is only when the darkness is behind me.
<Shaggy in Scooby Doo>
“I’m not afraid of the dark, I’m afraid of what’s in the dark!”
<Shaggy>
I’m generally not bothered most of the time, but do have moments if I awake in the middle of the night when I can totally convince myself there is someone in the house or in the room beside me. I can really freak myself out before I manage to rationally convince myself it is all in my head. Only then can I move or get up.
For many years I’ve been plagued by persistent bad dreams. And I mean really bad dreams. I’m not exactly afraid of the dark, I’m more afraid of going to sleep. But I have a light on in the bedroom because I’m afraid of waking up in the dark.
Even when I’m not sleeping alone, I still feel the need for a light in the room despite knowing that my partner is a very light sleeper and will wake me up if I appear at all distressed.
I have trouble recently sleeping in the dark. Some of the meds I am on give me horrendous nightmares. Up until then I had no problems in the dark. Light or dark though, when you get that creepy feeling, that is it no rest what so ever.
I get creeped out in the dark…vampires! Monsters! The…THINGS in the corners and closets!
If I’m sleeping alone (which is only if Tark is gone for one reason or another) I have to leap from the doorway into the bed so that whatever MIGHT be under the waterbed on a pedestal of solid wood can’t slither its nasty slimy cold tentacle out and grab my ankle and pull me under and do Painful Things to me.
I can’t shower in a dark shower (power out or what-have-you) because when it’s dark the SPIDERS come and the shower is their favorite place and their favorite prey is girls who are all alone in the running water with their eyes closed (say…rinsing their hair).
I’m not afraid of the dark, but I do have some night lights in the house - one in each bathroom and one in the kitchen. These are for self-protection in case I get up in the middle of the night. I’ve been known to hurt myself on furniture that has been in place for years! Plus they provide confirmation if the power ever goes out.
I’m fine as long as I’m in bed. But the idea of seeing myself in a mirror in the dark creeps the hell out of me – a couple of nights ago I had to get up to go to the bathroom at about three and when I went into the bathroom, before I could get the light on, I saw I’d left a makeup mirror sitting right where I could see myself. shiver
I don’t much like dark bathrooms at all, but I think that’s a hangup from my early childhood toilet phobia.
In the spirit of G. Gordon Liddy, I suppose, once in awhile I will try to break my fear of the dark. It goes like this: I’ll be working in my office in the basement and when I start to return upstairs, I will turn off all the lights in the basement and see how “deep” into the basement I can walk before my fears overwhelm me.
Usually I can get about 15 feet max before snapping on the flashlight and skiddadling out.
I once walked with two female friends of mine down my Very Long Driveway (4000+ ft.), during a new moon, to see if we could get to the end of it without using our flashlights. The drive is framed by towering elm trees. The sky was jet black. It was so dark we couldn’t even see each other. That’s about when we started hearing rustling noises in the distance and sundry other odd noises. Sorry to say, I didn’t feel safe even on my own drive.
I don’t have any problems with the dark: my eyes are fairly light sensitive, so I tend to have little problem seeing my way around if there’s some ambient light available. (Where chairs are, etc. I won’t be able to accurately tell you colors, however.)
I am supposed to be the “protector of the house” so I am required to be tough.
I saw THE RING a few weeks ago and had to sleep with my bathroom light on.
Since then I have woke up twice screaming at the top of my lungs and my teenagers come tearing in thinking someone is in my room when it was only a bad dream. But before I can go back to sleep I have to turn the light on.
Rico and I got married 22 month ago. Our first night together in this house, he rolls over and asks me to turn the TV off. :eek:
WTF
A MAN who doesn’t sleep with the TV on! This had not crossed my mind as a possibility or a possible problem. How do I tell my new husband that I’m 44 years old and can’t sleep in the dark!?!?!?!?!?!?!
After some preliminary panicking, I finally decided on an approach that couldn’t fail. I simply told him that he was crazy. I couldn’t possibly turn off the TV. What if there was something on during the night I just had to hear, even if only in my subconscious? It seemed like an approach that couldn’t be argued. I was wrong. So wrong.
Long story short, I ended up in tears before fessing up to the real problem. That night he left the hall light on. The next day I went shopping for a night light.
I have the best husband in the world!!! No matter where we go, he makes sure he finds a light to leave on so I don’t get scared during the night.
