Thread: How can I overcome my fear of the dark?

I'm the same way. I can LD perfectly fine with some light on, I've never found it to be a problem to sleep with the room lit enough for me to be comfortable. And I don't use just a night light, I usually have some sort of very bright light on, often a fluorescent lamp. It has not stopped me from enjoying lucids. I rarely experience SP but I've learned that it's not scary at all. I don't think you should even worry about this! The more you worry and dwell, the more awful it will be just because you expect it to be so. SP is an incredible experience, and can be the gateway into a lucid. Enjoy yourself!

You could try what I've done sometimes, which is to gradually turn down a light until it is pretty dark in your room, bit by bit and night by night. Also, when you turn the lights off your eyes are still not ready to see in such dark. If you give them some time, you'll be able to see better in darker lighting conditions so you won't need as much light if it's causing a problem, and it won't seem as scary a few minutes later as it does right when you turn off the lights.

Also simply through LDing I have overcome a lot of my fears of the dark and etc. Mainly because I know that if I see something scary, it means I'm in a lucid. It has really helped me overcome an what I viewed as an embarrassing problem, so hopefully it can help you as well Maybe if you focus on DILDs until you have found a way to conquer the fear, WILDing will be easier?

Tons of thanks to both of you guys!

I too think that the best way to overcome my fears is to face them gradually.

On another note I got close to a WILD this morning, but my family ended up distracting me since I did it when the sun came up.

If you have an iPod you can just make it repeat your favorite song over and over.

But I know what everyone is talking about now, about how scary sleep paralysis hallucinations can be.

Before, I had never experienced any visual hallucinations during SP, only really loud buzzing that frightened the hell out of me while at the same time my mind was being pulled out of my body, this was very scary.

But it was nothing compared to what happened the other night. I smoked weed the other night and I just lay in bed letting my mind wander. I've never had visual hallucinations during sober sleep paralysis, and still haven't but this night I began to have very vivid visual hallucinations which was probably a result of the THC in my bloodstream combined with the sleep paralysis.

Anyway, I was having kaleidoscopic vision, and it was all like rotating fractals, really weird looking stuff, it was amusing at first. But then everything took a turn for the absolute worst.

I saw what I interpreted as suffering souls from Hell gasping for help, unsuccessfully. Then I felt like God was sending me to Hell, and my fate would be the same as theirs. I really wanted to go into a WILD, but I was scared that I would instead be sent instantly to Hell to never return. As I thought about these frightening things, the painful gasps of the suffering souls became more and more prominent.

I became so terribly horrified that I decided that a WILD wasn't worth losing my soul over, so I shook off the sleep paralysis as fast as I could before it could get a complete hold of me, and escaped the grip of Hell. I was so shook up after that, i just wanted tomorrow to come. So I jerked off to help myself feel a little better and get rid of some energy and stress, and then I went to sleep.

Moral of the story, don't smoke weed and enter sleep paralysis if you aren't experienced with sleep paralysis or if you are a religious person who believes in Hell or if you are easily frightened in general.

But if you want to overcome your fear of the dark, you should spend a few minutes every night walking around in the dark exploring your surroundings, touching objects, and telling yourself, "It's just the same as it is during the day, except there is no light reflecting off these objects into my pupils to allow me to see them."

I have found that the world is much less scary if viewed from a scientific perspective as opposed to a religious/mystical/superstitious perspective. If I had done that that night, I probably would have been able to have the most vivid lucid dream of my life.

I had a crippling phobia of dogs a while ago, and dealt with that by looking after one who I had known since he was a puppy for a weekend. Similarly, I have a phobia of needles, but I got a blood test today and now I feel happier with them.

You can get over fear by getting used to what scares you. Take time, get used to the dark. You'll be ok.

Thanks guys, I was kind of doing that last night, walking around tellingmyself it's the same as daytime just harder to see.

I have the same fear. xD

What I do is trun on the lights and TV and sleep. :\ But I'll try to sleep without either.

Or jsut one

I keep the T.V. on sometimes until I'm about ready to fall asleep. I can never sleep with it on, though it does help me get tired.