Fear of the night can stem from fear of the dark, loneliness, anxiety, or fear for personal safety. To overcome it, identify the root cause and distinguish between real and unfounded dangers. Rationalizing fear, mental checklists, and preparedness can also help, but severe cases may require professional help.
Fear of the night usually stems from fear of the dark, which in turn is often caused by fear of the unknown or loss of control. To overcome fear of the night, one should first consider the root cause of that fear, which may be darkness, a sense of loneliness or isolation, or anxiety due to any number of causes. Pinpointing the cause of your night time fear can be difficult, especially if there is more than one cause, but discovering the source of your anxiety can help quell it.
Many people are afraid of the night because they fear for their personal safety. While many of these fears of danger are unfounded, there are, of course, real dangers that come as night falls. One step in overcoming the fear of the night is to distinguish between real dangers and less plausible ones. For example, some people fear the dark after watching a scary movie because their minds repeat the scary images from the movie. This is an unfounded danger; it doesn’t actually exist anywhere except in the mind. Such fear can be debilitating and can only be resolved by not watching such films; but, a simple solution, like a nightlight, can also allay those fears. If the fear is persistent, the night light can help for many nights in a row until the person who fears the dark slowly moves away from the night light.
But some fears associated with fear of the night are very real. You may be afraid of the night if you have a fear of strangers or similar social anxiety. Again, this fear has more to do with a perceived threat to a person or thing, not so much the darkness itself. So the person with the fear needs to identify this cause and learn to cope with that social anxiety instead. Sometimes rationalizing fear can help, saying things like, “My doors are closed and no one else is here, so I’m safe.” Making a mental checklist of nighttime noises, such as the house settling or a tree branch scraping a window, can help the sufferer expect those sounds and thus avoid being startled.
Other ways to relieve anxiety associated with fear of the night must be prepared. For example, if a sufferer is afraid of an intruder during the night, it can be helpful to have a plan in case this actually happened. Often times, a fear of the night can become so severe that professional help is needed. A therapist or medical professional may be able to help the sufferer trace the source of the fear through therapy or counseling, and in some severe cases, medications may be prescribed to promote sleep or relieve anxiety.
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