Is Your Baby Scared of The Dark?

The short answer: nope.  Babies are not born with the fears that adults typically attribute to them, and fear of the dark is one of those.  (Think about this, your newborn spent about ten months developing inside of a very small space with no windows.  They are used to the dark!  In fact, most babies don’t like their environment to be too bright for the first bit of their life, because they haven’t been in the bright light before, their poor little eyes aren’t accustomed to it).  Children’s brains learn most fears as they develop.  The fear of the dark does not typically develop until they are at least two years old and sometimes not until they are older.  As a child’s brain is able to understand that there is more to life than what they can see their imagination expands, and they may start to fear the dark. 

That said, fear of the dark is not categorized as an innate fear, meaning that it is a learned behavior.  In the ongoing debates about nature versus nurture, fear of the dark is considered to be nurtured into a child.  It is taught to them through music, movies/tv shows, books, other children, and your own words.  That is good news, it means that you can teach your child that the dark is not scary.  One of the best ways to do that is by not introducing a night light into their sleep environment.  (If you need some light when you go in to feed your baby during the night, be sure that you use a red bulb and keep it as dim as possible.  Red light will not trigger the light receptor in you or your baby’s eyes and skin, which will make it easier to go back to sleep).  Avoid allowing your child to partake in media that will cause them to become fearful and if someone tells them that the dark is scary tell them that it is not!  It might sound simplistic, but your child trusts you more than anyone else, you can reassure them and help them to understand that the dark is scientifically the best way to sleep!