A fear of the dark usually first occurs around the age of 3 or 4 when a child's imagination is beginning to expand. Once a child is exposed to a world beyond what they might experience within their own home, through social media, television and movies, their imaginations are also expanded.
Fear of darkness usually starts between ages 3 and 6, when children are old enough to use their imagination but have not fully developed the ability to distinguish fantasy from reality.
Childhood Fears for AGES: 2-4 years old
Fears around the potty and potty training are common at this age. Read Why I am Afraid to Go Potty for tips on how to conquer this fear. Fear of loud noises (vacuum, garbage disposal, garbage truck, fireworks etc.)
Adorable kids and horror paraphernalia seem like an incongruous pairing. But a child's interest in horror is “almost always a harmless fascination,” said Coltan Scrivner, a research scientist at the Recreational Fear Lab at Denmark's Aarhus University.
A fear of the dark usually first occurs around the age of 3 or 4 when a child's imagination is beginning to expand. Once a child is exposed to a world beyond what they might experience within their own home, through social media, television and movies, their imaginations are also expanded.
Darkness itself is not scary!
The problem is that they cannot see what is lurking in a dark room. This makes them feel vulnerable and a child's imagination goes wild. This is why something as simple as a nightlight or light up teddy can make the problem go away.
Consider sources of daily stress. Kids who suffer from daytime anxieties—about school, separation from parents, or other concerns—are more likely to fear the dark and fear sleeping alone (Gregory and Eley 2005). You may be able to reduce your child's nighttime fears by helping him cope with daytime stress.
When does a fear of the dark typically start and end? Children are most often afraid of the dark starting at around the age of about 2 through the preschool years, although it can appear in older children as well. A fear of the dark usually lasts for a few weeks to a few months.
Nyctophobia is very common, especially among children. Some researchers estimate that nearly 45% of children have an unusually strong fear of some kind. Fear of the dark is one of the most common fears among kids between 6 and 12 years old. Kids usually outgrow nyctophobia by adolescence, but not always.
While fear of the dark is most common among children 3-12 years old (affecting nearly 3 out of 4 kids, according to one study) many adults are also prone to fears of darkness.
Being afraid of the dark is often associated with childhood, mostly occurring in children ages 6 to 12, according to the Cleveland Clinic. But it's not uncommon for the issue to continue into adulthood.
And a 4 year old sleep regression is typically related to behavior more than it is sleep. Even a good sleeper will likely experience sleep issues at some point in their childhood. That being said children ages 2 through 4 years old are especially good at testing boundaries.
They might follow you from room to room and might refuse to go into any dark room alone – even during the day! Bedtime can be a complete nightmare – no pun intended! Kids can take hours to go to sleep and can wake up throughout the night due to their fears.
Let him sleep with a night light or leave the hallway light on with his bedroom door open. Using a dimmer may also help. Let your child decide when he's ready to darken his bedroom. If your child wakes up in the middle of the night, resist the temptation to bring him into your room.
It may be helpful for your child to have a security object (e.g., special blanket, toy, stuffed animal) to keep during the night to help him / her to feel more relaxed at bedtime. A night-light may be helpful for providing security at night even if your child is not afraid of the dark.
Fears are a normal part of being a preschooler. Common fears include monsters under the bed, loud thunder, going to the doctor, or dogs that come too close. Teaching young children how to manage childhood fears on their own builds independence.
Bedtime fears – the dark, monsters under the bed, and sleeping alone – are all common at this age. They tend to start around age 2 and may last until age 8 or 9. These are the years when your child's powers of imagination are exploding, which means that now he can imagine new and scary things to be afraid of.
The Root of Toddler Fears
Fears may pop up when a child is under stress, suffers a scary experience (an injury, earthquake, car accident), sees a scary cartoon, or hears something ordinary but misinterprets it as something frightening.
Usually, the fear of the dark hits home for kids around the ages of 2 or 3, when they're old enough to imagine, but not wise enough to distinguish fantasy from reality, Berman says. This gives the unknown an opportunity to turn scary.
Anxiety can get worse at night as people find themselves focusing more on their worries once they are lying in bed without the distractions of the day.
Scopophobia, scoptophobia, or ophthalmophobia is an anxiety disorder characterized by a morbid fear of being seen in public or stared at by others. Similar phobias include erythrophobia, the fear of blushing, and an epileptic's fear of being looked at, which may itself precipitate such an attack.