Are you afraid of the dark?

Fear of the dark in adulthood, the danger of malfunctioning LED street lamps, the Dark Sky movement, and Dark Sky conference replays.

It’s easy to embrace the first half of the Brighter Days, Darker Nights equation. Brighter days are associated with optimism, goodness, and improvement.

Do you think of darkness as the opposite of lightness? Photo by Jben Beach Art.

Yet, even though both are equally part of nature, we don’t always see such positive associations when it comes to darker nights. Instead, people often use darkness to describe the bad, frightening forces that oppose the good and the light. One of the most common phrases you hear paired with dark night is "dark night of the soul." It's normal for fear of the dark to extend far past childhood.

As if you need any proof, look at the extent to which people have driven back the night. Anywhere where people gather in large numbers, they have pushed back the darkness of night.