Are You Afraid of the Dark?

My roommate noticed that in our room the television is never really off unless we leave the room for long periods of time. We even sleep with the television on, naps included. So, I decided that we should sleep with the television to help save energy. This suggestion lasted for less than 15 minutes. Both of us realized that it was simply impossible to attempt to fall asleep without the television on. Which left me wondering why?

Then it clicked to me that maybe I’m not used to sleeping with the TV on but the creepy, eerie, silence that being in the dark  brings, brings me a huge discomfort. I am openly admitting that as a twenty year old young adult that I am afraid of the dark.

I asked my roommate, Cheyenne Bhutan, if my theory on being afraid of the dark could be a possibility to our sleeping habit with the TV and she said “ I've never thought about it like that but yeah I am”. Now, Cheyenne is highly paranoid person and is easily frighten person. When asked why she couldn’t sleep without the TV on she replied “In the dark, I feel like there could be something coming out of my closet and my eyes start to imagine things are coming towards me”. I completely agree with her. In the dark, I start to imagine things like my towel on my door is a ghost.

Our fears of the dark made me question are we the only ones who are afraid of the dark. The answer to that is no we aren't  A recent study, done by the Ryerson University in Toronto showed that nearly half of the participants admitted being afraid of the dark which has lead them to have poor sleeping habits. What the study concluded was that insomniacs could possibly have the fears that tend to keep them up actually root from the fear of the dark. The good news is that the fear of the dark is curable with the help of behavioral therapy. Though, I doubt that either of us are going to do that.