Study Finds There Is One Childhood Fear That Still Keeps People Up At Night (Especially Men)
Still sleeping with the lights on at 35? You're not alone.
LightField Studios | Shutterstock Nearly all of us went through it as a kid: That phase where you're absolutely petrified of the dark. Sleeping with the lights on, filling the bed with stuffed animals to protect you, and never, EVER looking under the bed. We've all been there in our young years.
Most of us quickly outgrow it, of course. Or do we? It turns out not nearly as many of us get over our fear of the dark as we might assume, and according to a recent study, a lot of us are maintaining our anti-darkness sleep habits well into adulthood.
Nearly a third of American adults are still afraid of the dark.
A third! That's a lot of people! You guys are giant babies! Or, well, a third of you are anyway, according to a recent survey by Talker Research of 2,000 American adults about how they feel about the likelihood that goblins will appear in their bedroom at night and kidnap them while they sleep, or whatever.
And a full 29% of adults said they still struggle with this basic childhood fear, the clinical term for which is nyctophobia. Scientists say it has an evolutionary basis. Back before we had houses with locked doors and whatnot, night was the time when we were most vulnerable to predators, whether it was sabre-tooth tigers or marauding bands of Vikings or what have you.
Thousands of years later, we retained this reasonable fear of darkness as our brains evolved. And snarky as I may have been so far, I'll admit that I get spooked every time I wake up at 3 a.m. to use the bathroom. It just always feels like I'm … not exactly alone in that dark, empty house. But for a lot of us, it goes much, much further.
Many adults still sleep with the lights on or sleep with stuffed animals.
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It's one thing to feel a bit creeped out while doing a late-night bathroom run, but quite another to be 40 big years old and still sleeping with the lights on (no judgments). But according to the survey, that's exactly what's happening with a lot of American adults.
1 in 4 adults sleep with a nightlight in their bedroom, and a full 10% sleep with the lights fully on every night. My condolences to their partners because this would drive me fully crazy. Please excuse me while I add this to my ever-lengthening list of why I will never share a bedroom with a partner!
Anyway, the same proportion, 10%, also said they still sleep with stuffed animals as an adult, to keep them company in the scary, scary darkness. Respondents said it helped them feel "secure" at night. But this isn't even the most interesting finding of the survey.
Men are much more afraid of the dark than women.
Be honest, the entire time you were reading this, you were picturing WOMEN sleeping with the lights on and WOMEN cuddling with a stuffed E.T. every night, like one of my college flatmates. Well, you're wrong! All of this stuff is more of a man thing than a woman thing, according to the survey.
They found that men were more afraid of the dark than women, with 33% of men reporting the fear compared to just 26% of women. And when it comes to stuffed animals, it's double: 15% of dudes said they're snuggling their favorite teddy bear from childhood compared to just 7% of women.
And they best women when it comes to another fear-of-the-dark aspect too: being so scared by horror movies they can't get to sleep. The survey found that nearly a quarter of men have nightmares after watching horror films, compared to 13% of women, despite liking horror movies more than women, 33% to 24%.
So as October heads closer and closer to Halloween, don't be surprised if it's the men in your life having to sleep with the lights on. And if you see me at the CVS buying nightlights for my late-night bathroom trip, no, you didn't!
John Sundholm is a writer, editor, and video personality with 20 years of experience in media and entertainment. He covers culture, mental health, and human interest topics.
