Nearly half of the students who reported having poor sleep also
reported a
fear of the dark. Researchers confirmed this objectively by
measuring blink responses to sudden noise bursts in light and dark
surroundings. Good sleepers became accustomed to the noise bursts but
the poor sleepers grew more anticipatory when the lights were down.
“The
poor sleepers were more easily startled in the dark compared with the
good sleepers,” said Taryn Moss, the study’s lead author. “As treatment
providers, we assume that poor sleepers become tense when the lights go
out because they associate the bed with being unable to sleep. Now we’re
wondering how many people actually have an active and untreated
phobia.”
Colleen
Carney, PhD, the principal investigator, said insomnia treatments are
highly effective but not everyone responds or completely recovers. New
approaches may be warranted. For example, the most effective insomnia
treatments encourage people to leave the dark bedroom and go into
another, lit room; however, this would not be a way to treat a
dark-related phobia.
“We may need to add treatment components for
these patients and adapt existing treatment components in light of the
phobia,” Carney said. “A lot more research is needed, but we believe we
have stumbled across an unmet treatment need for some poor sleepers.”
[
CBC]
