Nyctophobia: What to Know about Your Child’s Fear of the Dark

Fear of the dark phobia, or nyctophobia, is a common phobia, especially in children. If your child is dealing with a fear of the dark phobia, you know how disruptive it can be. In particular, a phobia of darkness can affect a child’s bedtime routine, and can make it challenging for them to fall asleep and stay asleep. Many children naturally outgrow a fear of the dark, but if your child’s fears are intense or long-lasting, it’s important to address them. Thankfully, therapy is a wonderful and effective way to manage a fear of darkness. 

Here, we’ll take a closer look at nyctophobia, including causes, symptoms, and treatment options.

What Is a Phobia?

In order to better understand nyctophobia, it can be helpful to understand phobias generally. Nyctophobia is a “specific phobia,” in which a person experiences elevated levels of anxiety and fear when exposed to a specific stimulus. This may be a fear of an activity, object, person or animal, or a situation. Even thinking about or hearing others discuss the stimulus can cause anxiety.

In children, fear of specific animals, fears of aspects of the natural environment (including darkness), and fear of blood or injections (such as from vaccines) are most common. For those with specific phobias, the reaction to facing the thing they fear can be immediate and intense. In children, this may look like crying, having a tantrum, shutting down or freezing, or becoming more clingy to a parent. Usually a specific phobia is diagnosed when the fear has persisted for six months or longer and is causing significant problems or avoidance.

What Is Nyctophobia?

 Nyctophobia means having a phobia of the dark. In some ways, it makes sense that a lack of light and visual stimulus creates fear, stress, and a feeling of uncertainty. Many young children develop fears surrounding the dark, likely because it evokes feelings of unfamiliarity, vulnerability, and a feeling of being out of control. Additionally, young children tend to have active imaginations, and may easily spin stories about creatures lurking under their beds or in their closets.

For most children, this fear of darkness is something that passes once they are able to understand that there is nothing to fear when the lights go out. But sometimes the fear of darkness lingers and may turn into a pronounced phobia. When this phobia is not addressed, it can endure for years. In fact, many adults still experience fear of the dark phobias. For example, a small study from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine found that about half of all adults with insomnia experienced a fear of the dark.

How Common Is Nyctophobia?

Specific phobias like nyctophobia are quite common. About 40% of the population will experience a specific fear at one point in their lifetime. Roughly 10% of people will have enduring specific phobias throughout their lives.

Fear and anxiety is something many children experience. One study found that 43% of children aged 6-12 experienced specific fears. Of these children, fear of the dark was one of the most common fears. Another study found that about 2% of children experience a persistent darkness phobia. 

Other fears commonly experienced by children include fear of large dogs, fear of fires, fear of heights, and fear of thunder. Children who listen to the news frequently may end up fearing kidnappers, robbers, or war. Some children experience fear of someone in their family becoming seriously ill or dying.

What Causes Nyctophobia?

Experts aren’t completely sure what causes specific phobias such as nyctophobia. It’s thought that phobias are caused by a combination of factors, which may include genetics and environment. Many people who have specific fears had a traumatic or stressful experience involving the thing that they fear.

Although many children experience a fear of the dark at one time or another, it’s not entirely clear why some children end up developing a fear of darkness phobia while others do not. Some contributing factors may include:

• A genetic predisposition to fear and anxiety
• Having at least one parent who lives with anxiety
• Experiencing a stressful or traumatic event, such as hospitalization, death in the family, or family separation

What Are the Triggers of Nyctophobia?

Often, though certainly not always, nyctophobia is caused by a difficult or traumatic experience that happened in the dark or at nighttime. Some possible scenarios include:

• A child waking up from a bad dream and being all alone
• A child getting lost outside at night
• A child who has a memory of their parent saying goodbye to them at night, and then experiencing extreme separation anxiety 
• A child who cried out at night for a parent to comfort them and didn’t receive the comfort they asked for
• A child who watched a scary movie at night or learned about a scary news story that occurred at night 

Whatever the initial experience, with nyctophobia whenever the lights go out at night, or whenever a child thinks about nighttime or darkness, their fear is triggered again. The child doesn’t always consciously think about the original event that caused the phobia, but becomes conditioned to associate darkness with a feeling of intense fear. Some describe nyctophobia and other specific phobias as a kind of post-traumatic-stress reaction.

What Are the Symptoms of Nyctophobia?

The symptoms of nyctophobia vary from one person to another. Usually, symptoms emerge soon after a child is faced with the idea of darkness or bedtime or soon after the light go out. The child may protest the idea of going to sleep at night or ask that you not turn out the lights. Nyctophobia in children is strongly associated with sleep issues, such as trouble falling asleep, and problems with bedtime routines. Children who have a fear of darkness phobia may also be more prone to anxiety generally, especially anxiety associated with nighttime.

Children with nyctophobia may experience many of the common symptoms people with specific phobias face, such as:

• Nausea
• Lightheadedness
• Labored breathing
• Racing heartbeat
• Fears that don’t match the danger presented by the situation
• Avoiding situations involving the fear stimulus

How to Treat Nyctophobia?

The good news for parents whose children have nyctophobia is that the condition is very treatable. Phobias for children are usually treated with therapy, typically cognitive behavioral therapy or exposure therapy. Children may also be taught relaxation methods. Occasionally, medication may be prescribed. 

Let’s look at the common treatments for nyctophobia: 

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

CBT is a type of therapy that teaches a child to become more mindful of their thoughts and feelings, and how these thoughts and feelings affect their behaviors and emotions. The therapist teaches your child strategies for managing their thoughts and feelings in more effective ways.

Exposure Therapy

A key component of CBT treatment, exposure therapy for nyctophobia consists of a child gradually, and in a controlled environment, being introduced to the thing that they fear. The idea is that by doing this, they will become desensitized to the stimulus (in this case, darkness). One study found that exposure therapy is 80-90% effective at treating phobias.  

Relaxation Techniques

Kids benefit from learning relaxation techniques to help them cope when faced with their fears. These relaxation techniques may include breathing techniques, mindfulness techniques, therapeutic movements, and practices like journaling and managing emotions through art and play. These strategies can give them a sense of mastery when facing their fears.

Medication

Phobias aren’t typically managed with medications, but in some instances pharmaceuticals can be helpful, when combined with therapy. Your care team will let you know which medications can be used in children who experience phobias.

Not all children who experience a fear of darkness need treatment. If your child’s fears aren’t interfering with their bedtime or their day-to-day life, you can wait to see if the fear passes. Almost all children experience a fear of the dark at one time or another, and most of the time, the fear fades soon after it emerges. 

But if your child has persistent fears of the dark and these fears are making it difficult to sleep, causing your child to resist bedtime, or causing your child to try to avoid situations where they might have to be in the dark, it may be time to reach out for help.

A licensed therapist can help in determining if a child’s nyctophobia symptoms are severe enough to warrant additional interventions—and fortunately, there are proven treatments available to manage the condition. 

To get help for a child with a fear of the dark, start with a free consultation from a licensed Handspring Health therapist today.  

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Works Cited

Academy of American Pediatrics. Understanding Childhood Fears and Anxieties.

American Academy of Sleep Medicine. "Some adults with sleep disturbances are actually afraid of the dark, study says." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 11 June 2012.

Better Health Channel, The State of Victoria, Australia Department of Health. Anxiety and fear in children.  

Cleveland Clinic. Nyctophobia (Fear of the Dark).

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