9781422280607

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Nighttime Fears

Who Goes There? One fascinating thing about our fear of the dark is that it does not usually appear right away. There are exceptions, of course, but most babies are not afraid of the dark. Generally, children only start to fear the dark when they are between one and two years old. That’s probably not an accident; in fact, it’s about the same age when young kids begin moving around on their own. If you view it from the perspective of our ancestors, a fear of the dark could be very useful. After all, cave people didn’t have cribs or safety gates! A fear of darkness helped keep curious babies from wandering around in the middle of the night, when it was easy for them to either hurt themselves or get eaten. Fear of the dark tends to be the worst in kids who are between two and six years old. The

Our ancestors had good reason to fear the dark.