Definition:
Lygophobia is an irrational fear of the dark, common among children but also observed in adults in varying degrees.
Lygophobia is from the word “lyge”, meaning twilight, and “phobia”, meaning fear. Other terms synonymous to this condition are nyctophobia (meaning fear of night) and scotophobia (meaning fear of darkness).
Diagnosis:
Some developmental psychologists believe that lygophobia is a transient phase in child development, usually manifesting at the age of 2.
Sigmund Freud and neofreudian researchers consider lygophobia as a symptom of separation anxiety.
In the 1960s, a clinical experiment was done to condition fear of the dark on rats, which are normally nocturnal animals. Scotophobin was found to be the substance responsible for remembering this phobia and extracted from the brains of the rats. However, these findings were later debunked.
Symptoms and Signs:
In lygophobic patients, aversion to the dark is intensified by imagination. A stuffed toy, for example, may seem like a monster in a dim room. Other otherwise ordinary shapes and forms are construed as dangerous entities in the darkness.
It is imperative to note that lygophobia is not fear of the absence of light. Rather, it is the fear of possible or imagined dangers lurking in the shadows.
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