Current Research on Fear of Darkness The fear of the dark is a common fear or phobia among children and, to a varying degree, of adults. Fear of the dark is usually not fear of darkness itself, but fear of possible or imagined dangers concealed by darkness. Some degree of fear of the dark is natural, especially as a phase of child development. Most observers report that fear of the dark seldom appears before the age of 2 years. When fear of the dark reaches a degree that is severe enough to be considered pathological, it is sometimes called achluophobia. Some researchers, beginning with Sigmund Freud, consider the fear of dark as a manifestation of separation anxiety disorder. An alternate theory was posited in the 1960s, when scientists conducted experiments in a search for molecules responsible for memory. In one experiment, rats, normally nocturnal animals, were conditioned to fear the dark and a substance called scotophobin was supposedly extracted from the rats brain, this substance was claimed to be responsible for remembering this fear. Subsequently, these findings were debunked A survey of 2000 adults conducted this year by Go Glow found that forty percent of us are scared when walking around the house with the lights off. One in ten admitted they were too terrified to even get up for a bathroom trip in the darkness. It’s something Katie Johns, 39, a Londoner who works in communication, knows well- she can still vividly recall what prompted her lifelong fear of the dark when she was a girl. “I was half asleep, and I thought I saw someone standing at the top of our stairs, just looking at me and my sister. I lay there in the dark, staring and being scared, not wanting to move. After that I slept with a crucifix for about five years and shared a bedroom with my grandmother. I couldn’t sleep alone.” Now an independent and confident woman, Katie