Nyctophobia
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Nyctophobia is a limiting and disabling disease characterized by a frenzied fear of the darkness. It is triggered by the mind’s disfigured perceptivity of what would or could happen when in a dark environment. Despite its pervasive nature, there is a lack of etiological studies on it. The fear of darkness, (nyctophobia) is a psychologically-impacted feeling of being disposition from a state of comfort to a frightening fear-evoking state. The fear of darkness or night has several non-clinical terminologies--lygophobia, scotophobia and achluophobia. The discomfort felt is in result to the psychological fright of dark environments or more specific, darkness. Nyctophobia is a phobia generally related to children but, according to J. Adrian Williams’ article titled, Indirect Hypnotic Therapy of Nyctophobia: A Case Report, many clinics with pediatric patients have a great chance of having adults who have nyctophobia. The same article states that “the phobia has been known to be extremely disruptive to adult patients and… incapacitating”^[1].

The Fear in Children and Adults

Nyctophobia is a fear suffered by both adults and children. It is most common among pediatric patients. Nyctophobic patients are frightened by thoughts of darkness. They assume a quicker response to darkness than do most people. For most adult patients, the fear has been with them since childhood. Adults who developed the phobia in childhood may suffer from any retrospective reference or mental-recall of past events in the dark. The lack of analytical and interpretive studies on nyctophobia allows only a limited understanding of the phobia. There is little known information about the pathological background and emotional aspects of nyctophobia. Television shows and movies are two of the known factors that cause children to develop a fear of darkness. Telling scary stories, especially while in the dark, is one other factor that may cause kids to develop the phobia.

Reactions/Symptoms

There are several different reactions observed in people who have nyctophobia. James G. Hollandsworth’s Physiology and Behavior Therapy states that for a person to be diagnosed with a phobia they must have 4-12 phobias. The different possible conventional symptoms many of the phobias have in correlation include, “dyspnea (“air hunger”), palpitation (rapid beating of the heart), chest pain or discomfort, choking or smothering sensations, dizziness or vertigo, feelings of unreality, paresthesia (tingling in the hands and feet), hot or cold flashes, sweating, faintness, trembling or shaking, and a fear of dying, going crazy, or doing something uncontrollable.” ^[2] These few symptoms all categorically fall in as either a physical, emotional, and/or mental reactions. Those who suffer from nyctophobia generally experience fast heart-beating, sweating, hard time breathing and overwhelming fright. The extremity of the symptoms depends on how severe the subject’s case of nyctophobia is. Nyctophobia, like many other phobias, causes a mental derangement leading to one’s inability to cope with things during night times. Anticipation of darkness for nyctophobic patients may affect their entire day. Depression is a possible side-affect for someone with nyctophobia. There have been few tests and experimentations; although, the few credible experiments have put some light on what nyctophobia really is.

Physiological Impacts:

Nyctophobics, depending on the severity of the phobia, may experience neurological or psychological side affects. Severe nyctophobia can be characterized by extreme trembling or quivering. When experiencing fear the body has an autonomic physiological reaction. These types of reactions are the body’s uncontrolled physical response to any phobic and fear stimulants. The human body takes an important approach—the avoidant response, to anything that may injure any sensitive part. A great example of such reactions is shivering, which may happen at a time when it isn’t cold or when there is no wind blowing. The body experiences confusion and becomes extra-sensitive to any breeze of air. The flow of blood to the heart is increased causing the heart to beat faster. Certain people are only afraid of being in a dark environment alone and are only able to do so for a certain amount of time; the exact time has not yet been clinically defined by any studies. Patients with such tolerance of darkness, of being able to remain in a dark environment without exerting any of the listed symptomatic reactions, are not subjects suffering from nyctophobia.

Intensity of the Phobia

There are not any clinically-approved methods of measuring the severity of nyctophobia--- although; there are two simple degrees--severe and non severe, under which any phobia can be labeled. A non-severe case of nyctophobia is when the patient is able to stay alone in a dark environment. A “severe case” of nyctophobia occurs when the subject is extremely fearful of darkness that even treating the phobia through an exposure-to-stimulant method would not be a proper approach for treatment. A person with a severe case of nyctophobia could experience continual thoughts to commit suicide and is likely to have other desires that are likely to result in personal injury.

Indirect Hypnotic Therapy of Nyctophobia: A Case Report

In the American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, Adrian J. Williams of Charleston, Illinois wrote about a case of nyctophobia suffered by a young lady by the name of Sally. In her case, she was in a severe stage of nyctophobia. Everywhere she went she brought with her “two flash lights, six packs of matches, and two butane cigarette lighters” inside her purse. Nyctophobia may have a depraving toll on an individual’s life. Sally sought therapeutic help because she wanted “to develop better parenting skills, to improve her marital relationship, and to learn to handle financial responsibilities” ^[3] In most case studies, hypnotherapeutic approaches has allowed therapists to trace the pathological fear of the dark in adults back to their childhood. For many successful therapeutically resolved cases, the patients have always been excellent hypnotic subjects. Like Sally, an “excellent hypnotic subject” is someone who could be put into a somnambulistic state. An individual in a somnambulistic state is in a trance whereby they are under hypnosis and have an abstract view of reality. Treating nyctophobia with therapy does not work well when the subject being treated can not be put in a trance state.

Treatment

Psychotherapy is one way to treat nyctophobia. Other methods of treating nyctophobia, and other phobias, include desensitization and exposure to the panic-stimulant. A panic-stimulant is anything that reminds a person of what they have a fear of and causes them to then exhibit the phobic response(s) that contributes to the emotional, psychological and physiological reactions that later follow during a phobic reaction.

Systematic Desensitization/ In vivo desensitization

Desensitization is one approach used to cure many phobic conditions such as nyctophobia. One of the given definitions from the online Merriam-Webster dictionary for desensitizing is, “to make emotionally insensitive or callous; specifically: to extinguish an emotional response (as of fear, anxiety, or guilt) to stimuli that formerly induced it.” Desensitization is a method used to treat people with self injurious behaviors, noise phobia, and injection phobia-- also those with handwriting anxieties, agoraphobia, and driving phobia. Systematic desensitization, a common treatment procedure for treating phobias, is “likely to be well suited to treatment of cases where anxiety inhibits self protective responding.” Limitations to the procedure are found when “there are behavioral skill deficits in the subject’s response demesne” ^[4] There are different experimental ways for which the desensitization of something can be conducted. In-vivo desensitization is one method of treating nyctophobia. It is usually the next treatment approach therapists and clinicians resort to when imaginal-stimuli does not work on a patient. Unlike the imaginal-stimuli approach, the in-vivo desensitization treatment does not cause the arousal of emotional, psychological and physiological responses as that experienced in the actual situation. The in-vivo desensitization approach gives the patient an experience of reality; with that objectivity, the procedure does not elicit similar emotional responses to the real experience. The in-vivo desensitization treatment is recommended for treatment of nyctophobia when: a) the client is unable either to imagine vividly the scenes described to him by the therapist or to hold the image constant for the duration of at least 30 seconds, b) the fear evoking stimuli are non-visual (e.g., auditory), c) the scenes can be easily found or reproduced in a real life, d) the in-vivo exposures can be arranged in such a hierarchy that the client is not unduly intimidated in the first few situations (Kipper 25).

Treatment of a 13 year old and 21

David A. Kipper wrote an article titled “In Vivo Desensitization of Nyctophobia: Two Case Reports,” which was about a treatment of nyctophobia conducted with the use of in-vivo desensitization on a 21 year old man and a 13 year old girl. The different main levels of the treatment included: a) a gradual increase of both the walking distance and the time spent in the dark in the continuous presence of the therapist, b) a repetition of the previous phase with the exception that the therapist was present only intermittently, c) an attention shifting procedure, and d) self practice (Kipper 24).

These four phases were the four pertinent phases included in the treatment of the two cases, which were conducted in the street after the sun had set.

Warning

It is important that the clinicians, therapists, and psychologists recognize that there could be possible errors in any future experiments where in-vivo desensitization is used. There are advantages of using desensitization yet there are also pragmatic disadvantages to the procedure. Treating different phobias require different methods, which depends on what is the patient’s exact problem. The results from the two case experiments have been the only two reported psychoanalytic studies where “in vivo desensitization” was used to treat nyctophobia. The success of the treatment with the given results and procedures from the experiment do not guarantee the same results.

Early Detection

Detection of any phobia is pertinent in preventing post-childhood symptoms and will reduce the probability of again re-experiencing the same fears later on in one’s life. According to the book Phobias, the “early identification of phobias and more specifically the ones that carry more disability… is imperative and this can be achieved through better social awareness, education of teachers… and direct contact with caretakers” ^[5]

1. ^ Mikulas, William L. "Behavioral Bibliotherapy and Games for Treating Fear of the Dark." Child & Family Behavior Therapy 7.3 (1985): 1-7.
2. ^ Hollandsworth, James G. Physiology and Behavior Therapy Conceptual Guidelines for the Clinician. New York: Plenum Press, 1986.
3. ^ Mikulas, William L. "Behavioral Bibliotherapy and Games for Treating Fear of the Dark." Child & Family Behavior Therapy 7.3 (1985): 1-7.
4. ^ Newman, Alexander and Brand, Eulalee. Coping Response Training Versus In Vivo Desensitization in Fear Reduction. Vol. 4, New York: Cognitive Therapy and Research
5. ^ Phobias. Chichester West Sussex England ;Hoboken NJ: J. Wiley, 2004.