Nyctophobia (fear of the dark)

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Afraid of the dark?

  • I still get scared of the dark.

    Votes: 9 11.1%

  • It's not the dark that scares me.

    Votes: 72 88.9%
  • Total voters
    81
Chauncey Gardener said:
Into the elevator and up I went. Arriving at the 16th floor, the doors opened, and the lights went out. All the lights. The elevator was situated in the middle of the building, so there was a circular hallway sans any windows, only steel doors that allowed a slight sliver of light from the bottom........
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No backup power / emergency lighting? Even in the staircase? Even in the early 1970s, some form of emergency lighting (battery or generator) was required here.

It's interesting to me that so many people have connected darkness with night. For me they're totally separate, and I feel much more comfortable at night than I do daytime. Even to this day, if someone's awake inside the house, I'm awake. I can't fall asleep until everyone else has been asleep for some time and I know they're not going to wake up. Even then, my mind usually stays partially awake, recording what goes on around me. If someone has a conversation within earshot while I'm asleep, about 10-15 minutes after I wake up I'll remember it and what they discussed.
 
TPA said:
No backup power / emergency lighting? Even in the staircase? Even in the early 1970s, some form of emergency lighting (battery or generator) was required here.

It's interesting to me that so many people have connected darkness with night. For me they're totally separate, and I feel much more comfortable at night than I do daytime. Even to this day, if someone's awake inside the house, I'm awake. I can't fall asleep until everyone else has been asleep for some time and I know they're not going to wake up. Even then, my mind usually stays partially awake, recording what goes on around me. If someone has a conversation within earshot while I'm asleep, about 10-15 minutes after I wake up I'll remember it and what they discussed.
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subliminal hypervigilance is a blessing and a curse...does yours have a random downtime crash, like a whole day of hard to wake sleep?
 
Chauncey Gardener said:
It was sometime during the 1980s, long before I started carrying a flashlight; I was going about my work delivering flowers. Although a cliché, it was definitely a dark and stormy afternoon, probably sometime around 4 pm during late Fall. Tacoma was experiencing a very powerful wind and rainstorm. My van was full of deliveries, which meant I still had a couple of hours of work to go, when I pulled up to this building.

View attachment 97012


I was very busy and therefore in a rush. Looking at the resident's directory outside the main doors, I was bummed (yes, bummed. Remember, this was the 80s) to discover the recipient lived on the 16th floor. CRAP! Into the elevator and up I went. Arriving at the 16th floor, the doors opened, and the lights went out. All the lights. The elevator was situated in the middle of the building, so there was a circular hallway sans any windows, only steel doors that allowed a slight sliver of light from the bottom........

Not being able to see anything, much less find the correct door and leave the flowers, I started knocking on door after door, hoping to find someone at home. Anyone, actually. I just needed someone to open their door so I could see. After a few attempts, a woman's voice answered -

16th-floor resident - "Hello. Who's there?"

Me - "Hi, I'm delivering flowers to Mrs Davis. I can't see anything. Will you open your door?”


16th-floor resident - "No. She's around the other side of the hall.”

Me - "Thank you."

After knocking on a few more doors, I found an elderly woman willing to open her door. She informed me Mrs. Davis was not home but she would accept the delivery for her neighbor. I thanked her, asked where the stairway was located, and requested she leave her door open until I located the stairs.

As the door to the stairwell closed behind me, it occurred to me that this was the first time in my life I could remember being in total darkness. I actually waved my left hand in front of my face. Yes, I know, another cliché. I could not see my hand, or an outline, or a shadow. 32 flights of stairs in total darkness. My right hand never releasing its grip from the handrail, fearing that someone had left something on the stairs. I also remember thinking - If I fall and break something, or am unconscious, how long will it be before someone finds me?
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C.G. --

You posted this exact same story YEARS AGO here on CPF,
and I have thought about it *HUNDREDS* of times since then ! ! !

#truth
😳
 
dc38 said:
and then you hear a slow, labored breathing coming up towards you from the flights below.
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dc38 and Chauncey -- you are excellent writers! This thread is revealing lots of interesting sides and aspects of people who usually just talk about flashlights.

Darkness for me can be good or bad. At night, I like to have my bedroom as close to pitch-dark as I can -- I too will put black tape over LEDs when I am in a hotel room. If the curtains are open, then I will start waking up whenever dawn approaches, and if that is 4:30a.m., then I don't get enough sleep.
So: for sleeping at home or in a safe place, darkness is fine with me.

But I have certainly experienced darkness as a frightening thing, too, at times. The basement when I was a kid, for instance, even though I knew all of its contents and played down there pretty often. It was still scary to turn off the light at the base of the staircase and run for the doorway at the top.

When I was a kid, the story of Tom Sawyer stuck in the cave made a big impression on me. He had a few candle-ends in his pocket and some string. His life would have been a lot easier with a decent, long-lasting flashlight!

I guess all of these stories help to explain why I always want to have a light with me, within reach, or better still attached to me. Sometimes I have slept with a Photon Freedom on a string around a finger. I could definitely see making a soft neck-cord for my McGizmo Sapphire. That first light on your body does not have to be bright; when you are stuck in the stairway of the apartment, the difference between 0.000 lumens and 0.050 lumens is huge. And that first light, however dim, can help you find your second light, maybe your normal pocket rocket.

I cannot recall, right now, any real panics in the dark. But I definitely want to be able to defeat the dark if it ever turns on me.
 
Burgess said:
C.G. --

You posted this exact same story YEARS AGO here on CPF,
and I have thought about it *HUNDREDS* of times since then ! ! !

#truth
😳
Click to expand...
I wondered if I had. Memory fails me at times. The original was written via email and sent to our two pastors. It's stored in my email Drafts. I still remember looking at my hand and shaking it as if that would make it visible. 🤓
 
TPA said:
No backup power / emergency lighting? Even in the staircase? Even in the early 1970s, some form of emergency lighting (battery or generator) was required here.
Click to expand...
I wondered if someone would question my story. It's true. I don't have even that good of an imagination. 😄

The Vista Del Ray was built in 1950, then Adjusted Year Built in 2000. Whatever that means.


9269000011
319 N TACOMA AVE WA.
 
Twenty years later.... I could have bought a hideously expensive Luxury car with the money I've spent on this hobby.

But also, it's not fear of the dark. I just want to see what's in the dark.
"Oh look, someone left their G2 PEN behind. Mine now."
That very thing happened a few days back at my 3rd Shift job.
 
+

Outside, it gets super dark at night so I always have a few warm tint filament LEDs' On,,
some up at my garage, couple in front of my house (garage & front of house are about 100' apart)
nothing overly bright

For sleeping, whatever is darker than pitch black is what I need
 
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Chauncey Gardener said:
I wondered if someone would question my story. It's true. I don't have even that good of an imagination. 😄

The Vista Del Ray was built in 1950, then Adjusted Year Built in 2000. Whatever that means.


9269000011
319 N TACOMA AVE WA.
Click to expand...
I read the 911 report and it said that the emergency lighting was not working. So I completely believe you.
 
orbital said:
+

Outside, it gets super dark at night so I always have a few warm tint filament LEDs' On,,
some up at my garage, couple in front of my house (garage & front of house are about 100' apart)
nothing overly bright

For sleeping, whatever is darker than pitch black is what I need
Click to expand...
so dark that you start to hear colors and see sounds?
 
I never want to be without the ability to make some light and to make some fire.

How often have I needed to make some fire? Very, very seldom -- and it was probably just birthday candles the last few times. And yet, I still try to have on me -- in my wallet or somewhere else close -- some simple means of making fire if I need to.

How often do I need to make some light? Multiple times a day.

There are things you can cobble together if you're in a jam -- lots of things, if you are wily and have some experience improvising. But there are also some basics that it is hard to improvise. And those are the basics that help you improvise everything else. Those are the ones you want to have with you.

Did I mention I never want to be without a decent cutting blade? No, I didn't -- because it goes without saying.
 
lampeDépêche said:
I never want to be without the ability to make some light and to make some fire.

How often have I needed to make some fire? Very, very seldom -- and it was probably just birthday candles the last few times. And yet, I still try to have on me -- in my wallet or somewhere else close -- some simple means of making fire if I need to.

How often do I need to make some light? Multiple times a day.

There are things you can cobble together if you're in a jam -- lots of things, if you are wily and have some experience improvising. But there are also some basics that it is hard to improvise. And those are the basics that help you improvise everything else. Those are the ones you want to have with you.

Did I mention I never want to be without a decent cutting blade? No, I didn't -- because it goes without saying.
Click to expand...
I have a front-pocket organizer for smaller EDC items. Among those items, a cigarette-shaped lighter (colored black with some texturing). It's leak-proof. Doesn't hold a lot of fuel. But good for numerous uses. Don't have to hold my thumb down during activation. I don't smoke. Never have. But I like having the ability to make fire if it ever becomes necessary. Will admit, I don't think I've ever actually used it; other than checking to be sure the fuel inside hasn't evaporated.
 
In my younger days, used to take walks through our woods at night.
Perhaps monthly. Using a rough footpath trail.

In August, there would be *LOADS* of Spiderwebs All Over,
and Each one containing a BIG FAT YUCKY-LOOKIN' SPIDER
right in the Middle ! ! ! 😱

Insufficient illumination would be quite a Nightmare !
 
Burgess said:
In my younger days, used to take walks through our woods at night.
Perhaps monthly. Using a rough footpath trail.

In August, there would be *LOADS* of Spiderwebs All Over,
and Each one containing a BIG FAT YUCKY-LOOKIN' SPIDER
right in the Middle ! ! ! 😱

Insufficient illumination would be quite a Nightmare !
Click to expand...
many spiders are more terrified of you than you are of them...
 
Our dad worked hard to "harden" our dark tolerance. When each of us was around age 10 he'd put an arrow in the target on our archery range on a very dark night. The range was about a 1/4 mile into the summer Louisiana woods behind our house. "Go get my arrow and bring it back to me." That was a direct order, not to be refused. Of course we had to go alone. A right of passage that we 5 kids all went through, including both my sisters. Worked wonders. We're all very dark tolerant. In fact, as long as I don't see a flashlight in the woods, I literally have no fear of the darkest nights. Seeing two-legged predators gets my hackles up.
 
dc38 said:
subliminal hypervigilance is a blessing and a curse...does yours have a random downtime crash, like a whole day of hard to wake sleep?
Click to expand...
I'm hypervigilant both day and night. Reasons. If you know, you know.

I can go into a semi-comatose/hibernating state when my body is totally exhausted. ie: BP/pulse/respirations are well below what is normal or considered safe. In that state, you can't wake me up. I try to time it when things are the least likely to need attention. A 15-30 minute nap will reset it. There is a specific sequence to wake me up when I'm like that, but it takes a bit of time for my body to raise its BP back to usable levels.

This was taken with me sitting at my desk, mid-day, fully awake and aware, feeling decent. It's not always this low, btw. Trying to "correct" this is a mistake and my body will fight it and I'll feel like crap. We've learned to just let my body do what it wants. With all it's been through, it's made it this far, so it must be doing something right.

1784972654076.png

lampeDépêche said:
I never want to be without the ability to make some light and to make some fire.
Click to expand...
Christmas is the last time I struck a match, to light candles. Going on 8 months now without a single flame. This is in contrast to the 80s when power outages were frequent, so many candle-lit nights at the house. In summer we'd just leave the candles out, box of matches on the headboard, later flashlight on the headboard, a nasty 2-D cell kind, just enough to find the candles and light those.
 
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