Talk:Fear of the dark

Last paragraph

I'd like to open up a discussion about the last piece at the end of the article.

In the 1960s scientists conducted experiments to discover molecules responsible for memory. In one experiment rats, normally nocturnal animals, were conditioned to fear the dark and a substance, called scotophobin that was apparently responsible for remembering this fear was extracted from rats' brains. Subsequently these findings were debunked.

Are debunked results really relevant in this case? I'm not a seasoned Wikipedia editor to decide on my own, but I'm not sure if it belongs unless it's supposed to be presented as a part of the history of the research behind the phobia. --Getfightted (talk) 01:51, 23 June 2008 (UTC)

I would have to agree with this. Why should an article present a point that itself debunks? It leads the reader in one direction, bringing him back without any real knowledge/insight gained. Madman91 (talk) —Preceding undated comment was added at 03:22, 6 November 2008 (UTC).

Not science based explanation

I am still awaiting an explanation to what causes the fear of darkness, why does it exist? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.240.134.84 (talk) 00:14, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

I wonder if anyone can find any good literature relating to a "scientific" explaination similar to what I found on this site - http://www.indiana.edu/~oso/evolution/planning.htm. Maybe a link to the instinct article may be sufficent. --174.6.169.30 (talk) 10:03, 18 April 2009 (UTC)

Comment

Living with this fear as an adult can be quite terrifying. I live with it and it's difficult at times. I have trouble getting in my car at night because I believe someone is in the back seat waiting for the perfect time to attack me. When I lay in my bed at night and I hear the slightest sound I go paranoid and I won't even shut my eyes, not even to blink. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.49.220.42 (talk) 06:23, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

Merge with nyctophobia article

Why two articles? Mohanchous (talk) 07:03, 27 May 2013 (UTC)

Why is no pronunciation given for achluophobia? I am overseas (away from full resources), and online I had a lot of trouble finding this information. On Google translate, the audio feature pronounces it something like this: /'akluə'fobiə/. Thank you - — Preceding unsigned comment added by 114.34.91.88 (talk) 04:15, 23 May 2014 (UTC)

Agreed, I'd do it but every time I try to change something on Wikipedia there's a editor who thinks differently which is why you will get redirected here even though there's not enough information on this page. Redirects to nyctophobia are just as annoying due to the age of the words alone.. but yes Achluophobia is the original "fear of dark". The origin of the word Achluo is Greek (meaning to darken) and phobia is Greek (meaning fear). Achluophobia is considered to be a specific phobia and is also related to Lygophobia (fear of being in dark places), Myctophobia (fear of darkness), Nyctophobia (fear of the dark or night) and Scotophobia (fear of darkness). While all very similar there's a psychology to each regarding perception, light, color(black), fear of the unknown in the absence of light, fear of possibilities in the absence of light, fear of not waking up etc... --D-MF-L (talk) 00:23, 20 June 2014 (UTC)

Therefore it make sense to merge all these hair-splitting phobias into the article Fear of the dark. In addition, this one is a more generic one: fear is not necessarily a phobia. I'd also suggest to delete the joke image, since it does not contribute to the understanding of the topic. -No.Altenmann >t 02:11, 20 June 2014 (UTC)

The definition of Phobia outside of it's use in clinical psychology is an irrational and/or persistent fear of an object or situation. Nevertheless the wiki police will be judge, jury and executioner as to whether or not it's acceptable to make things easier for the 99% of people who get confused with these similar but slightly different pages with wrong redirects. D-MF-L (talk) 00:14, 11 July 2014 (UTC)

Why are you shouting? Everybody agrees with merging. My point was that since all these achluo/nycto/scoto-phobias are close but different, the best place is a neutral title, and all of these are subtle variations of the "fear of the dark", hence they may be naturally descirbed under this title. Also, fear of the dark is not necessarily irrational. You may be mugged in the dark, and it is actually irrational not to be afraid of the Central Park at night, rather than vice versa. -No.Altenmann >t 18:31, 12 July 2014 (UTC)

It's called being dramatic. He likes to post in superscript too.

There should be a merge from Nyctophobia to Fear of the dark, as well as Achluophobia. Putting in a paragraph about each of the different irrational forms and keeping a redirect to the subsection so searchers can find the right article would be fine. Worrying about whether or not the fear is irrational is null issue. If the redirect points to the right section, it will be made clear by the article that the fear described is irrational ... or not, as the case may be.  — Myk Streja ^(what?) 20:54, 5 July 2017 (UTC)

It has been suggested that Nyctophobia be merged into Fear of the dark. I am undecided about this myself but I thought it worth creating a formal merge proposal to encourage discussion. 73.223.96.73 (talk) 03:04, 10 April 2015 (UTC)

I am of the opinion that the Nyctophobia article should not be merged with the Fear of the dark article, since fear of the dark describes a not-necessarily-irrational fear of darkness, whereas nyctophobia describes the psychological phobia (which is irrational).

114.75.214.190 (talk) 23:17, 4 January 2017 (UTC)