The only place I could ever sleep in darkness was the bedroom I spent the first 20 years of my life in.
Everywhere else, even where I live now, I need a certain amount of light to sleep. Otherwise my imagination plays tricks on me. I get the feeling people are behind me. And my mind is so active that I don’t sleep.
I don’t sleep so easily in the light either, because darkness plays a part in producing Melatonin, which helps you sleep. So biologically I need darkness, but psychologically I need light.
Anyone else afraid of the dark?
If the house is entirely dark and it’s late at night I have problems with open doors–anything could be lurking behind them. I would go all around and close them compulsively–if I weren’t often too afraid even to approach them. Occasionally I have to spend a couple minutes coaxing myself into taking the two or three steps past the basement door (undisputably the most sinister of the bunch).
Oh, and it takes all the will I can muster not to stand on the bed and jump as far from it as I can if I need to get up in the middle of the night. I never really got rid of the fear that something horrible might reach out and grab ahold of my ankle.
The dark can do some weird things to a normally rational mind…
Well, I’ve lived in cities all of my life, and total darkness has been hard to come by.
One of the most relaxed states I’ve ever been in was after spending a couple of hours in a Lilly (sensory deprivation) tank. Total darkness, and not much additional sensory stimulation either (silent, and designed to absolutely minimize tactile and thermal sensations - there wasn’t much to smell or taste, either).
And one of my saving graces for a period when I worked graveyard shift while going to school was the fact that I lived in a place that had been a recording studio. I slept in the studio, which could be shut up tighter than a humidor. Silent and pitch black - the only way to sleep during the day.
But, both of those total darkness environments were ones I knew to be relatively safe (although the police did raid the studio once). Too much darkness in an environment where I perceive potential danger is worrisome.
A sleepy mind in a nearly dark room can spin up the imagination. For a long time when I was little (~4 or 5), tiny Dutch people came out at night from the baseboards in my bedroom. There was a lion who snarled and growled from where he lived, over the bedroom door. But I could sleep because I knew the Dutch would hold him at bay.
Perish the thought, though, of rising before dawn’s light flooded the room because I knew well of the Thing under the bed who grabs the ankles of children who dare to rise in the dark (I think my parents may have planted that seed).
Yep, me too. Always had a night light as a kid and now I usually leave a light on in my living room so I have a little light filter to my bedroom. I had a lot of trouble sleeping when I lost power during the hurricane, partly because of the heat, partly because of the wind rattling my windows but mostly because it was pitch black.
I had a thread like this a while ago, and I like the way you described your fear. You take a look at mine. I don’t like the dark, I don’t like basements, and I especially don’t like dark basements. Or attics. Ugh.
No, I’m the exact opposite, too. I have to be in complete darkness to go to sleep, or whatever light there is keeps me awake until I either get exhausted enough to fall asleep, or I have to get up.
Most definitely.
After watching that **horror ** show, I tremble in the dark whenever I hear the closet door creak.
…
Nuts. Can’t remember the name. It was a horrifying movie which scarred me for life. I think it ended in the letters “inc”, but I can’t be sure.
I used to be until about five years ago and then I suddenly changed for no apparent reason. If it’s total darkness, yeah, but otherwise, no. Light distracts me when I sleep anymore.
The Dutch held the lion at bay? Water, maybe. But a lion? And tiny Dutch people at that. How did they reach him if they were tiny and he lived over the door? That’s some whack shit, man! And the lion is a Dutch national symbol, too.
When I was young I was REALLY terrified of the dark; also things in closets, under beds and in basements. Somehow, somewhere in my teens, I just didn’t care about that kind of thing anymore and haven’t been bothered by it since.
And I thought it was just me.
I have to say mine are more insanely preposterous and gruesomely detailed. It’s gotten so much worse since having a baby. The image I’m currently hung up on is a pack of werewolves slinking into my house killing my husband first, standing with their snarling drooling faces inches from mind while they disembowel my 8 month old son. Before that it was the jeepers creepers guy. I don’t see myself being comfortable with my son sleeping in his own room until he can talk because ghosts may torment him and he wouldn’t be able to tell me. There are tons more.
I’m not afraid of people. I can blast the torso off a psycho. But monsters…
Of course I only believe in them when the lights are off.
I can’t watch any scary paranormal movies, even silly low budget ones.
Any one seen that werewolf movie where a bunch of U.S. military men are in the Russian wilderness? That’s the damned image I get hovering over me every night now. I saw the movie about 2 months ago and it won’t go away.
When I was younger what kept my eyes wide most often was the image of Satan standing at the foot of my bed slowly leaning over placing his hands on either side of my legs, just waiting. That and 3 foot tall ‘things’ scurrying from shadow to shadow.
And I’ve recently found out that night-lights can cause cancer. Great
Sort of. I do not believe there is anything that will get me, but I have very bad eyesight, and I’m bothered by the idea of getting up for the 2 AM pee, and hurting myself on some kind of obstacle I can’t see.
Even though I can pretty much sleep anywhere and anytime, I prefer to have the room as dark as possible. Just more comfortable, I guess. In fact, most of the time, I keep the shades in my apartment drawn and everything as dark as possible, even when I’m not trying to sleep. I’ve got the lay-out memorized anyway, so it’s not as if I’m going to trip over anything.
Don’t have anything against the sunlight–in fact, on sunny days I try to get as much as possible–it’s just that I’m too damn lazy to find the light switches.
The fear is less pronounced if I can get all my limbs under the cover, but that is uncomfortable, I like to get some of the quilt between my legs for comfort, and that means my feet will be exposed. I have the fear that something will grab them.
Mdm. President Yiou have it bad!
If it helps - I don’t think babies or small children can be scared of ghosts or monsters because they don’t yet have the concept of such things in their minds.
I can’t sleep well in total darkness or in silence. The first month I lived out here in the country (farms in every direction, and no sounds but the cows mooing) I could barely sleep at night. I would wake up every hour or so in a panic from the silence.
All in all, I find it more comfortable to sleep with some light, and have absolutely no problem falling asleep in a loud, brightly lit room. Came in handy in college.
I don’t like the dark, I don’t like basements, and I especially don’t like dark basements. Or attics. Ugh.