What is the psychological reason for being afraid of turning off the lights when sleeping? How to overcome the psychological fear of turning off the lights when sleeping

We all know that many people have various habits when they go to bed. Some people are used to drinking a glass of water before going to bed, some people are used to going to the toilet before going to bed, some people are used to listening to music before going to bed, and some people are used to not turning off the lights before going to bed. They are afraid of not being able to sleep once they turn off the lights. So what is the reason for being afraid of turning off the lights before going to bed? Let's take a closer look!

Is it common to be afraid of turning off the lights when sleeping?

This is quite common and occurs in both children and adults.

In our daily life, when children go to bed at night, they may be afraid of their children crying and making noise, so they will only go to sleep when the lights are on. This situation occurs mainly because they are afraid of the dark. However, this situation also exists in many adults. They turn on the lights in the room when they go to bed at night. They can only sleep peacefully in a bright room, otherwise their fear of darkness will increase dramatically.

What causes the fear of turning off the lights to sleep?

In fact, sleeping with the light on is a very bad habit. For some people, it has become a bad habit. The pathological essence is the fear of darkness. Most of the fears are formed from childhood. During the growth period, children are very curious and like to listen to stories about ghosts and myths. The characters in the background and content of such stories are active at night or in the dark that ordinary people cannot see, which highlights its vividness and mystery. For a long time, children have associated the fear of so-called demons and ghosts with darkness. They are afraid to walk on dark roads. As long as it is a dark place, they can form a fear of the formation, so they have formed a dependence on lights, which leads to not daring to turn off the lights when sleeping at night. In addition, it is also possible to be frightened in the dark scene, or sleep in a dark room, and have some nightmares. Especially these terrifying nightmares that make them terrified are not resolved in time, which will also cause a fear of darkness. This fear is also accumulated in the process of growth. When they are adults, they still keep this habit, and they unconsciously form a disease, namely "sleep with the lights on".

How to overcome the fear of turning off the lights to sleep

In fact, this habit of sleeping with the lights on has become a serious psychological problem. From a psychological point of view, there are two ways to solve it.

1. Cognitive therapy

That is to say, the patients should be educated on dialectical materialism and atheism, and told that there are no monsters in this world, so that they can fully realize this. In fact, the fear of the so-called monsters leads to the fear of darkness, which fully reflects the childish emotions in the early childhood. Therefore, the patients must reduce or alleviate the fear of darkness cognitively, and eliminate the fear of darkness cognitively and subconsciously, in order to achieve the treatment effect.

2. Systematic desensitization therapy can be used

Generally speaking, we need to establish a level of fear based on the fear of darkness. Then we can train the patient in order of importance. Only through training can we continuously improve the patient's behavior and make them suffer. Those who gradually reduce their fear of darkness have established a systematic desensitization therapy in their training. They cannot interrupt the patient, but insist on completing the training plan until they can consciously turn off the lights and go to bed.