28 SCIENCE & TECH Are You Afraid of the Dark? Still? Ali Javeed, Science & Tech Editor The fear of the dark has been carved into us since the beginning of time, but where does it originate from, and how can we deal with it? It’s nothing to be ashamed of we promise. Day. A time to work, play, and travel. Night. A time in which the shadows creep from the corners, slowly enveloping the world in total darkness. The classical dread of darkness is one that we have all shared since we were young. Even as we grew into adults, although our egos may have been too inflated to admit it, the fear has carried on. What explanation can we find for our instinctual fear? The first obvious reason is that the axis between day and night was the domain in which primitive humans changed from predators to prey. The strength of the pack adapted from providing additional hunting power to providing additional protection against the unknown. The thing is, society has developed. The gruelling demise of death by a pack of wolves just doesn’t have the same probability as it did tens of thousands of years ago. Yet, fear of the dark seems to remain in our arsenal of instincts. Steve Joordens, a decorated professor of psychology at the University of Toronto believes the instinct “[will] always be there, it’s the lack of information, our brain is always trying to understand how things play out. Things like that [used to] help with hunting. It’s a very natural part of the brain.” Joordens explains that the frantic and helpless reaction we have when the lights disappear is thanks to the sympathetic nervous system: “We get this blanket of comfort from our brain always predicting how things are going to go, and when that blanket is removed we get that fear and anxiety. It kicks in that sympathetic nervous system - spider senses getting tuned up.” The sympathetic nervous system is most famously known for its control over the body’s fight or flight response that is triggered in reaction to immediate danger. The adrenal medulla releases epinephrine which increases sugar metabolism and muscle strength as well as norepinephrine which increases heart rate and blood pressure. These hormones are responsible for what you feel when you are under stress – or caught in the dark. When we do task ourselves with walking in a pitch black space, we begin to see things – interpreting shadows as monsters and murderers. Joordens compares the feeling of walking in total darkness to those feelings felt by subjects in sensory deprivation chambers. In a 2006 study of the chambers by Solomon, Leiderman, Mendelson, and Wexler, it was reported that subjects who were unable to hear, see, or speak for extended periods of time in extreme cases felt “hallucinations, delusions and confusion.” Joordens explains that “if the body is not receiving sensory input, it creates sensory input, the mind starts generating things, and you see hear and feel things. Pitch black might be something similar.” Although it may start with a fear, Joordens says that you can overcome it: “After years and years of sleeping in safe spaces, we can grow to like the dark. We have to establish that (it’s) a safe place.” Although the concept of fear may be complicated, tricking your brain into feeling comfortable again could be as easy as occupying it with hard mental math problems or singing a song in your head. As silly as it sounds, minute actions like these can take your mind off of imagining things and onto subconsciously accomplishing your task - like sleeping. If you can’t trick your mind, it is possible to consciously convince yourself that you are safe by staying focused. “Keep going where (you) want to go, don’t worry about distractions, if you think you hear or see something, just keep going,” as detailed by Andre, a 1st year life science student who admits to being afraid of the dark. Although his fear has remained at the same intensity as when he was young, he says that it doesn’t inhibit his daily life. Andre expresses that it’s not something to be embarrassed of and, as proved by the insight of Professor Joordens, it’s an instinct within all of us that exists to protect us. So next time you have to navigate from the light switch to your bed without freaking out, or convince yourself that the coat hanger at the end of the hall isn’t Slenderman, think about this article and its contents. Maybe by the time you make it to your destination, you’ll have occupied your mind long enough to block the fears. www. the-underground.ca OCTOBER 2017 VOLUME 37, ISSUE 02
SCIENCE & TECH 29 NOOR AQIL / THE UNDERGROUND www. the-underground.ca OCTOBER 2017 VOLUME 37, ISSUE 02