Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Scared of the dark as an adult - anyone else?

104 replies

Mummy2022FT · 30/06/2023 22:46

I'm genuinely interested. And this isn't a joke

If you were to get a glass of water in the middle of the night for example, would you be able to just walk in darkness? (Obviously provided u can just about see where you're going lol) I personally have to turn on every light that comes my way.

I think what made my problem worse was doing night feeds when DS was newborn. (He's 9months now & sleeps through the night luckily) but being up as a single mum at like 2/3am was a bit... eery.

I definitely think some horror films that i watched when I was younger have stayed with me.

If I hear a noise from downstairs in the night I freak. In the day time i wouldn't even think twice about it.

And what reminded me to make this post is it's dark now at 22:45 and you guessed it... I'm freaked out!

OP posts:
Original poster
Mummy2022FT · 30/06/2023 23:23

boydoggies · 30/06/2023 23:17

I've always been a scaredy cat in the dark. Even at 430pm in winter time. My dog has made me braver though. Would never have the tv on after 9pm for fear of scary music. Even Harry Potter is too much!

@boydoggies I had to stop watch gogglebox late at night because they'd always end reviewing some kind of horror film! I'm so pathetic lol!

OP posts:
OneTC · 30/06/2023 23:23

In my home no bother. Walking through a forest alone OTOH.

I used to like exploring big derelict buildings and used to go on my own quite a lot, tried it a few times at night and was just so on edge that I couldn't enjoy it.

So I don't really suppose I am scared of the dark, but it definitely makes a huge difference to how much danger I perceive.

There are some caves and tunnels I've been into, deep underground, and when you turn your torches off it's so dark that you can't even tell if you've got your eyes open, which is a really unusual experience and makes you realise that we very rarely experience the sensory deprivation of true darkness, we can normally see some hint of light, or some glow, or light pollution on the clouds

Original poster
Mummy2022FT · 30/06/2023 23:24

PurpleButterflyWings · 30/06/2023 23:12

Absolutely no problem in the dark at all ...always walk to the landing and even downstairs to the kitchen in the dark. I think it's a bit strange to put the lights on to do stuff while I'm still half asleep actually. But I do understand that all people are different.

My DH always put some lights on in the hall and the bathroom when he gets up in the night. Never been scared of the dark even as a child but I do get some people are...........

@PurpleButterflyWings wish I could be like you

OP posts:
pinguins · 30/06/2023 23:24

Yes and it's worse when I've been watching horror or read horrible things in the news. I'd genuinely never heard of Fred and Rose West until last week and I was on my own in the house that night and I could not deal with the darkness after finding out about them. I was the same for about 3 weeks after reading Birdbox (ridiculously, given the subject matter was the literal opposite and the dark was the only safe place in the story).

Original poster
Mummy2022FT · 30/06/2023 23:25

ThatsRoughBuddy · 30/06/2023 23:05

And I have to push a door properly open before I can put the light switch on - no way can I reach in and turn it ion when the door is opened just enough to reach in. Someone/thing could grab my hand! 😱

@ThatsRoughBuddy

I'm the other way round. My logic is 'let me get this light on as quick as I possibly can' lol

OP posts:
ithinkifeelaliveagain · 30/06/2023 23:26

I’m scared of the dark in my own house at night, leave the bathroom light in all night even if dc aren’t there and get jumpy going downstairs at night, but strangely I regularly run alone in the forest/countryside late at night with a head torch and don’t get scared so I’m not sure why I feel differently indoors. I guess it’s some kind of left over fear from when I was a child and terrified of the dark in the house.

GG1986 · 30/06/2023 23:27

Yes always been scared of the dark! If I went downstairs in the night to get water I would definitely turn lights on.

Original poster
Mummy2022FT · 30/06/2023 23:27

ithinkifeelaliveagain · 30/06/2023 23:26

I’m scared of the dark in my own house at night, leave the bathroom light in all night even if dc aren’t there and get jumpy going downstairs at night, but strangely I regularly run alone in the forest/countryside late at night with a head torch and don’t get scared so I’m not sure why I feel differently indoors. I guess it’s some kind of left over fear from when I was a child and terrified of the dark in the house.

@ithinkifeelaliveagain

I'm the same actually. Could walk my dog after dark no problem. It's being indoors.. strange...

OP posts:
ShinyAppleDreamingOfTheSea · 30/06/2023 23:27

I leave the light on in the hallway so there is always a faint light . Sleep with the door open too.

I really hate those timed lights you get in restaurant toilets abroad where the light goes off after a couple of minutes. I normally put my torch app on my phone as I go in . Most people think I'm weird !

Tojumpasinkingship · 30/06/2023 23:28

Yep hate the dark…. And mirrors at night …. Fuck that …. Hate looking upstairs cases at night Amd have worked in old buildings on night shifts ….. petrifying .

Original poster
Mummy2022FT · 30/06/2023 23:29

I don't know if anyone's seen The Watcher on Netflix... for me, that massively creeped me out!! Basically about being stalked in your own home. I should never have watched it.

OP posts:
ShinyAppleDreamingOfTheSea · 30/06/2023 23:30

XenoBitch · 30/06/2023 23:20

I am generally ok in the dark, but night windows scare me and always have.
You know... the window with no curtain or net that is just black at night.

I'm fine with upstairs ones - I prefer them open - but hate them downstairs.

Original poster
Mummy2022FT · 30/06/2023 23:30

Tojumpasinkingship · 30/06/2023 23:28

Yep hate the dark…. And mirrors at night …. Fuck that …. Hate looking upstairs cases at night Amd have worked in old buildings on night shifts ….. petrifying .

@Tojumpasinkingship

This is no joke.. i took down the mirror in my bedroom for that exact reason. Especially after seeing on TikTok that it's a 'portal for spirits'.... no thanks!!!

OP posts:
QueSyrahSyrah · 30/06/2023 23:32

Me too! I'm ok in my own familiar flat in the dark but if I'm in a hotel for work I usually leave the bathroom light on so it's not totally dark if I wake up in the night.

If I go to the loo in the night when I'm on my own I put all the lights on, but with DH I manage with my phone torch so I don't disturb him. I don't like it though.

Linnet · 30/06/2023 23:32

I’m ok in my own house, I’ll get up in the dark and go to the loo or the kitchen if I need to. My kids were almost teenagers before I left the hall light off through the night though. But if I’m staying away in a hotel I have to leave the bathroom light on in the room, I can’t sleep somewhere I don’t know in the dark.

Mangogogogo · 30/06/2023 23:33

I find the dark very cosy but I’ve always been a bit gothic at heart!
i turn my phone torch on to go downstairs because otherwise I would 100% walk into things.. I have no sense of direction at all.

my children make the dogs come downstairs if they want to get a drink when it’s all shut up downstairs 😁

Fairislefandango · 30/06/2023 23:35

I'm not at all scared. Equally fine in the light and the dark.

Mangogogogo · 30/06/2023 23:36

Fwiw for someone who is hardly ever scared by anything, I ran a hotel for a while that had serious bad fucking energy and locking it up every night I used to run and my heart would go mental.

so I guess I’m not all ofay with the dark!!

Original poster
Mummy2022FT · 30/06/2023 23:43

Mangogogogo · 30/06/2023 23:36

Fwiw for someone who is hardly ever scared by anything, I ran a hotel for a while that had serious bad fucking energy and locking it up every night I used to run and my heart would go mental.

so I guess I’m not all ofay with the dark!!

@Mangogogogo

Ok that is creepy

OP posts:
Original poster
Mummy2022FT · 30/06/2023 23:44

Also I have a baby monitor and I'm scared of that (thanks paranormal activity) lol

OP posts:
Skinnybluebody · 30/06/2023 23:44

Not scared of the dark and can quite happily walk around the house with no lights on, I don't though because I'm scared of spiders, I have to put the lights on just in case. Nothing more terrifying than the thought of one running over my bare foot while I'm padding about or I'm sat having a wee 🙈

picturethispatsy · 30/06/2023 23:49

There is an evolutionary reason for us feeling scared in the dark/at night. It’s all linked to you basically losing your visual sense so your other senses are in much higher alert. We are primed to be on higher alert as a result.
Also night would have been a time of much greater danger for our ancestors so it makes sense that we have inherited that!
So you’re all normal.

Devastateddaughter · 30/06/2023 23:54

I'm scared of the dark, I sleep with curtains open and can even sleep with my bedroom light on. I always leap onto my bed in case something grabs my ankles and don't get me started about getting into my car in the dark (what if someone's in the back seat 😬)

MissGroves · 30/06/2023 23:55

Yes very much scared of the dark. I need to leave hall way light on at night BUT I also can’t sleep with a light on so wear a sleep mask! Couldn’t find my sleep mask the other night and thought I would just shut the bedroom door…after all I sleep with a sleep mask it would be fine…was it fuck!! It was awful and I hid under the duvet and lasted tops two minutes….door open! would rather endure exhaustion than the dark! (I’m 44 btw!! 😂🙈)

Tummytroubles22 · 01/07/2023 00:01

I’m not scared if the dark at all, my DH works away a lot and I’m currently in bed in the dark in our house in the middle of nowhere. There are fields then forest around the house. Four DC are sound asleep and I’ve just been out in the garden in the dark before coming to bed. I have never, ever watched a horror film and wonder if that’s why it doesn’t bother me? We do have two dogs so they help me feel more secure too.