Yep, I am afraid of the dark, and always have been (I will turn 36 tomorrow).
It has gotten scarier since we had kids, because now I am expected to be up and around in the middle of the damn night!
But I am my own worst enemy. I will be sitting in the nursery rocking the baby back to sleep at some ungodly hour, and start thinking about something scary, like that scene in The Changeling where the antique wheelchair spins around and chases somebody out of the attic all by itself! That’s it, I am totally screwed, and I still have to go downstairs to refill the bottle for the next wake-up!
Luckily, we have a huge dog who would probably protect me if the menace woke him up.
I still sleep with a lamp on (I’m 17), but that’s mostly because my room is a complete wreck and I’d rather not kill myself tripping over a box in the dark on the way to the bathroom.
I can’t stand being in the rest of my house when it’s dark, though, especially when I’m home alone. Last night before I went to bed, I realized I had left a light on at the other end of the house… getting there to turn it off involved turning on all the lights in my path on the way there, then turning them back off on my way back. Good thing no one was there to witness.
I’m so glad to see this thread! I’m 33 and I have been afraid of the dark on and off most of my life. In my early 20s I lived in a house that was near some awfully bright street lights, which helped me to sleep without needing to have a light on. Having had roommates helped considerably, but if I spent the night in the apartment alone, it was always uncomfortable. Basements are the worst for me – for the first 20 or so years of my life I had recurring nightmares that took place in the basement, so I’m still unnerved by them. Just last week I was reading a semi-scary book and ended up leaving my reading lamp in order to get to sleep. When I first saw The Blair Witch Project I didn’t sleep for a week. Luckily I still get plenty of light from outside my apartment, and I have cats to keep my company, but I still have some rough nights. I suspect this fear will never completely leave me.
