Sleep Difficult For Some People Because of Afraid of the Dark

Recent research claims, sleeping problems experienced by some people may be triggered by the fear of the dark. The finding was evidenced by small-scale study to examine the influence of light on insomnia symptoms experienced by students in Toronto, Canada.

Scientists from Ryerson University Sleep and Depression Lab in Toronto used to measure the noise of the eye blink response among a group of students that when sleeping in lighting conditions and without illumination (dark). Nearly half of students who sleep less afraid of the dark admitted. Participants who had a good sleep habits tend to get used to the (unaffected) with noise disturbance, but they are difficult to sleep more anticipatory when the lights turned off.

"Those who experience sleep disturbances more easily startled in the dark compared with individuals who have a good sleep habits," said Taryn Moss, principal investigator of the study.

"As a provider of therapy, we assume that people who are difficult to sleep easily strained when the lights are turned off. Now we wonder how many people are phobic completely to the dark and not treated," he said.

The plan of these findings will be presented at the 26th annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies (APSS) in Boston. Research published in the journal Sleep in 2012.

Researchers said the new method of therapy may be needed to help adults who troubled his sleep for fear of the dark.

"We may need to add a component of therapy for these patients and harmonize the existing components to overcome the phobia of the dark. Further research is needed, but we believe we have stumbled across an unmet medical need for some people who have problems with sleep," said Colleen Carney, PhD, one of the researchers.