Fear of the dark is one of the most common fears in children , even in adolescence. As always, one cannot say that fear itself is something bad, but in any case, it can be harmful if it becomes a pattern of avoidance behaviour that appears when there is no reason to be alert or to seek a safer place.
In this article we will see several tips on how to act on children who are afraid of the dark to help them and to alleviate the discomfort they feel when they stay in places without light.

Children afraid of the dark: why do they suffer?

The first thing we must do in addressing this issue is to understand the logic behind the child’s experience of fear. Fear of the dark is something acquired, that is, an involuntary learning, not something that arises innate in the child and then has to be corrected. That implies that, just as it has been learned, it can also be unlearned.

And what is the point of fearing the lack of light ? Vision is one of the senses we use most when receiving stimuli from the outside, and in fact the part of the brain we use to process visual information is very large. That is why, when our sight is nullified, we feel much more disoriented and dependent on others or on the resources we can find.

In the case of children, to this feeling of uncertainty we must add the feeling of helplessness , of exposure to possible dangers and helplessness. Why? Because in children magic thinking is much more frequent.

What is magical thinking?

Magical thinking in a way of thinking that is based on assuming that reality includes entities capable of transforming themselves or adopting forms that we confuse with inanimate objects and that, consequently, surround us without us noticing, sometimes directing our destinies or simply influencing what happens to us in an indirect way.

It is based, after all, on placing an entity with purpose behind the events that occur , since we still don’t understand how our surroundings work.

Thus, what is scary is not so much the darkness itself, but the fact that through the protection it offers, children are left far from the protection of adults and can become victims of the misdeeds of any “monster” or malicious entity.

Educating children against the fear of darkness

Now that we understand a little better why there are children afraid of the dark, it is time to propose solutions. While it is very unlikely that overnight a child will go from being very afraid of the dark to not feeling any discomfort or a certain level of anxiety when staying in a place with little light, we can make that level of fear very much less, enough that it is not a significant problem.

1. Don’t ridicule their fears

Fear of the dark may seem absurd from an adult’s perspective, but as we have seen, for children it can make sense. That is why it is important not to laugh at these fears, although obviously there is no need to show that there are reasons to have this fear .

The key is to show understanding and allow the child of the house to explain his or her fears by feeling understood. If we laugh at these worries, we will only reaffirm that the fear of the dark is not alone and does not have much protection against this feeling, but if it can be expressed, this feeling of helplessness will not be there.

2. It regulates the fiction pieces to which it is exposed

Obviously, if a child is regularly exposed to pieces of fiction that depict monsters or murderers attacking in the dark, this idea will haunt him more often . Supervising the series, videos and films that a young child watches is positive if it helps to avoid fears or misconceptions that can harm him.

3. Don’t use myths or fear of monsters to make me obey

The belief system of children, like that of any person, is an interconnected whole. Therefore, it does not make sense to say that there is no reason to worry about the darkness if at the same time you feed the fear of the “bogeyman” or the “bogeyman” who takes away the bad children. It is necessary to maintain coherence .

4. Contributes to sleepiness

The simple fact of going to sleep and not going through experiences of fear for a significant time makes the children more accustomed to the darkness, because they know that they have been in the dark many times and, without having adopted any “special defensive measures” , no monster has attacked them.

So, some tricks you can use is to make sure they don’t look at screens or bright light sources for the two or three hours before they go to sleep, that they actually get to bed when they’re sleepy, and that they haven’t been exercising just before.

5. If you have a pet, get it to participate

The protection offered by a pet such as a cat or dog can be an intermediate step between constant parental protection and absolute autonomy. In any case, is very preferable to an adult staying at the foot of the bed “standing guard”, a fact that only reinforces fear by making the moments when one is alone stand out more.