Fear of the Night

[gruber]

I was thining about this today, I would like to hear people's opinions on why Humans are afriad of the night.

[Sir Patrick Crocodile]

Same here. In fact I'm not scared of thunderstorms either.

[SchizoDeluxe]

The obvious answer - the boogie man

[gruber]

Ancestrally, it may have been better to be wary of venturing out alone in the dark due to predators. Is conjecture along this line helpful?

Thats what i believe it is, a old instinct

[KeithW]

I used to live near a place called Chistlehurst in Kent England. The local Caves system was quite old and was used as a venue for live groups and discos over the years. I saw Eric Burdon and the Animals there a few times.

There was always a rumour going around that if you spent the entire night in the caves alone you would win a bit of money. Of course we all thought it was true, heard plenty of stories about people running out of the place after a few hours screaming. Apparently as the local legend goes, no one every won the prize.

Now I realise that it was a load of old bollocks, but it was very real for us at the time. We never took up the challenge either.

I'm not affraid of the dark in itself, what worries me is who else is around, not the bogey man but some crazy with a knife.

[Raceace]

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth wasformless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

It seems that no one was scared in the beginning, because there was nothing to be afraid of until that G_d pork chop started creating stuff to be afraid of.

I would say the fear of darkness is a hard wired thing unless say you are a Bat. When you look at any animal where it is unable to use its primarily preferred sensory apparatus, that animal in most cases goes on the defensive. Eg owls that sustain damage to their eye sockets which act as an auditorial catchers mit tend to stay inside their nests longer than if they hurt their wings. If the owl`s ability to locate prey is compromised it would prefer to stay away.
I think cavemen were probably primarily reliant on their sight for hunting/self defence. When darkness robbed them of that crucial advantage, even listening for danger was not enough to curb their anxiety.

[eclectic]

I concur also. Sight is our primary sense for working in the world so the loss (or partial loss) of it makes us uneasy. I've even heard a theory that sleep may have come about as a way to stop us trying to function in the dark, and subsequently bumping into things or being eaten by predators. It is purely an idea but I think an interesting one.

I often get scared of the dark when I'm home alone... start imagining things in the shadows and lunatics in the house. When hubby is near I'm fine. I used to walk home through somewhat dodgy suburbs in London at night... I didn't fear the dark too much then but I sort of think I should have.

[robertkd]

The problem is the human eye isn't optimised for 'night vision' so night meant trying to observe what might be in the shadows or not,...

My worst is walking into spider webs between trees that plain sux doubly so when the web feels like steel wire, most likely a bird spider

The other one is the wiggly sticks that you tend to step on from time to time,...

[Mister Pervert]

Originally Posted by gruber

I was thining about this today, I would like to hear people's opinions on why Humans are afriad of the night.

I'm afraid of people who don't believe in the moonwalk.

[Sir Patrick Crocodile]

I've seen astronauts do the moonwalk. I believe Michael would have made a fine astronaut...