What Is Noctiphobia? (An Overview)

In this blog we will discuss the symptoms, causes and treatment of Noctiphobia.

Fear of the night is called Noctiphobia. Normally, children or people are fearful of nighttime.

They fear going out of the house after sunset because it gets darker. However, someone suffering from this phobia gets extremely terrified when exposed to night.

This fear is not wholly irrational because of the fact that nighttime does bring with it a lot of bad events such as robbery, which is very unlikely to be experienced during the daylight.

Secondly, one may dread night because of the gloomy, depressive, dark feelings one feels.

Because Noctiphobia comes under the category of anxiety disorders in the DSM-V, one gets extremely anxious at the mere thought of night.

They are unable to control their anxiety, as opposed to other people who just have a mild fear or dislike for night.

Normally, people don’t feel traumatized when exposed to night, as compared to in Noctiphobia.

These overwhelmingly high levels of anxiety, one suffers from in Noctiphobia cause hindrances in their day-to-day activities.

According to the DSM-V, hurdles in one’s daily activities is referred to as a social and occupational dysfunction.

Repetitive avoidance, caused by anxiety is what leads to this dysfunction.

For example, one will avoid going out of the house at night. They will sleep early (before sunset) to avoid the fear that the night brings.

One might refrain from going out at parties or dinners.

Also, a sufferer might use dark shades/blinds on their windows to trick oneself that it is day time and not night.

These avoidances and social occupational dysfunction in Noctiphobia can make the sufferer feel safe and pleasant.

This sense of security maintains their phobia because it proves to them that their fear stimulus (night) is dangerous and threatening.

Though, these feelings are short-lived. In the future, an individual is very likely to develop OCD, as a result of his repetitive acts of avoidance and or depression.

An individual suffers from misery, which can give rise to full-blown panic attacks if exposed to their fear stimuli, night. One may require hospitalization as a result.

Their overall physical health is also put at stake when one is unable to avoid getting exposed to night.

Noctiphobia is an abnormal, persistent fear of night. The name originates from a Ltain word ‘nocti’ meaning night and Greek word ‘phobos’ meaning fear.

This specific phobia is closely related to other fears such as Nyctophobia (fear of darkness) and or Nyctohylophobia (fear of dark wooded areas or forests at night).

People who ask Why am i so paranoid at night? are usually the ones who have Nyctophobia.

Symptoms of Noctiphobia

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders-5th Edition (DSM-V) suggests a number of psychological and physiological symptoms one suffers from in all specific phobias, including Noctiphobia.

This irrational fear of night is a part of anxiety disorders, thus anxiety is it’s focal symptom.

This anxiety gives way to an adrenaline rush which aggravates other physiological symptoms, such as heart rate, breathing rate and one’s mood.

These symptoms persuade the repetitive acts of avoidance as mentioned earlier.

Because each individual experiences Noctiphobia differently (based on their past experiences), one will suffer from more severe symptoms , as compared to someone else.

According to the DSM-V, anxiety that one experiences in Noctiphobia should last for at least 6-months.

Other than this, one should also suffer from 3-5 symptoms out of the list mentioned below.

Excessive anxiety when exposed to night
Excessive anxiety when thinking about nighttime
Inability to manage anxiety
Full-blown panic attacks
Avoiding nighttime
Increased heart beat
Breathlessness
Muscle tension
Nausea
Feelings of dizziness/fainting
Feeling depressed
Fear of an impending doom
Excessive sweating
Tremors
Hot/cold flashes
Butterflies in the stomach
Drying up of the mouth
Disorientation
Migraine

Causes of Noctiphobia

It is argued that all anxiety disorders, including specific phobias have no real cause.

They are caused by either a genetic predisposition and or environmental factors.

According to the genetic/biological model, specific phobias are developed due to a genetic predisposition.

Someone who has a family history of anxiety disorder has a higher chance of developing Noctiphobia.

This is because any alteration in the genes of his parents will be transferred to him.

Someone who has alterations in their neurotransmitter levels of the brain can develop Noctiphobia. These alterations are low dopamine levels and high serotonin levels.

This genetic tendency to develop a specific phobia is further explained by the Diathesis-stress relationship.

This suggests that someone with a genetic predisposition will develop Noctiphobia only in the presence of the correct environmental trigger event.

The environmental trigger events refer to the past-traumatic experiences associated with one’s fear stimuli.

For example, one who has heard of or experienced robbery, murder and or sexual abuse at nightime is very likely to suffer from Noctiphobia.

News reports on the horrendous events that occur at night induce this irrational fear.

Crime rates/events such as robberies, forcible violation cases or kidnapping are the highest at night.

Additionally, one who has other phobias such as Nyctophobia (fear of darkness), fear of robbery (Kleptophobia), fear of ghosts (Phasmophobia) and or Bogyphobia (fear of bogeyman) can also develop this irrational fear of darkness.

To conclude, Noctiphobia is caused by either a genetic predisposition and or environmental factors.

Treatment of Noctiphobia

Noctiphobia, like all other specific phobias, has no exclusive type of treatment that is specifically designed to treat it.

Like all the other specific phobias, Noctiphobia is treated by a number of different therapies including Cognitive-behavioral Therapy (CBT) and exposure therapy to lower anxiety.

• Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

It is one of the most frequently used treatments for patients with almost all kinds of mental disorders.

Noctiphobia is defined as the irrational fear of night. Thus, the therapist helps the patient in replacing these irrational thoughts with more rational ones.

The patients are helped out in analyzing and justifying the way they feel about their fear stimuli.

Therapists assist them in uncovering the reasons behind their fear and later they provide them with alternate, pleasant thoughts.

The patient is told to maintain a thought diary (with ABCD column) which provides them a replacement for every irrational thought they have, when thinking about a particular situation. The ABCD stands for:

i. A (antecedents) a situation or triggering event.

ii. B (belief) the thought that comes to one’s mind when in that triggering situation.

iii. C (consequences) the symptoms/feelings caused by that event/thought

iv. D (dispute) alternate, rational thoughts provided by the therapist in an attempt to dispute/challenge those irrational beliefs.

This last section of the thought diary is what really plays a role in helping the person feel good/less anxious.

• Exposure Therapy

It is one of the most frequently used ways of treating patients with Noctiphobia (or any other kind of specific phobia).

In this therapy, the patient is exposed to the source of his fear over a certain span of time.

To begin with the therapy, the therapist exposes the patient to the least triggering stimuli, a picture of nighttime for example.

As the therapy progresses and the patient is able to control his anxious feelings, imagery can be used to take the treatment a step further.

In this part of the treatment the patient is asked to visualize/imagine a situation in which he is going out at night.

During this process of imagery, one actually feels being in that particular situation or place, experiencing various senses.

Once the person successfully, without feeling anxious clears this step of the therapy, he is then exposed to real nighttime.

While the patient is being exposed to different intensities of stimuli during the various stages of therapy, the therapist simultaneously teaches them coping exercises.

These include, breathing techniques or muscle relaxation methods to lower their anxiety, when in an actual fear/anxiety causing situation.

This teaches them how to remain calm when exposed to the fear stimuli.

Before actually starting the exposure therapy, the therapist needs to figure out the intensity of the patient’s fear, as to deduce whether they will be able to undergo this treatment, without any physical or psychological harm caused to them during the exposure processes.

However, these steps desensitize one to their fear of nighttime, by exposing them to that stimuli repeatedly, until they learn to undergo the situation without anxiety/panic attacks.

• Drug Therapy

Drugs are used to reduce the physical symptoms caused by Noctiphobia.

Drugs are very quick in effectiveness, as they start showing progress in the patients’ health at least 2 weeks after the medicine is taken.

This type of biological treatment is usually more effective if the cause of phobia is only genetic.

However, these drugs/medicines are not to be taken without a doctor’s prescription or consultation.

Two types of drugs are used in the treatment of this phobia:

i. Anti-anxiety Drugs

These include medicines like Klonopin.

They are most commonly used with patients who experience panic attacks and also lowers the anxiety by binding to receptor cells of the brain that cause these unpleasant symptoms.

ii. Antidepressant Drugs

These drugs as the name suggests don’t only treat depression but are also very effective in treating phobias.

Medicines like Lexapro reduce the anxious feelings of a person and makes him feel calm.

They need to be taken on a daily basis but not without a doctor’s advice.

• Yoga/Meditation

They are not just one of the many treatment therapies used for Noctiphobia, instead they are one of the most common ways of relaxation used by many people.

Yoga tends to stimulate the meditative state of one’s mind while the person is in a particular yoga posture.

Through yoga/meditation the mind is diverted towards something more productive and calm, allowing the person to escape the negative, distress causing thoughts.

Out of a number of yoga types, one can benefit from any yoga type/pose they like. Hatha yoga is one of the different types of yoga.

The breathing techniques or the imagery one creates while in a yoga posture are the real factors that makes the person feel less anxious and diverts their mind, away from the thoughts about their fear stimuli.

• Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)

This is another effective therapy used to treat Noctiphobia.

It is more commonly used with people suffering from personality disorders, but is also useful with patients suffering from this type of specific phobia.

Coping skills are taught in the DBT group which lasts for about 6-months and can have a number of people (depending on how many join the group).

i.Half-smiling is the first module of DBT. It is a technique that is used with patients who are distressed because of their irrational thoughts.

The technique is known as ‘Half-smiling’ because the person is first advised to think about the stimuli that fears or upsets them, and while doing so they are told to lift the corners of their mouths by subtly smiling.

Smiling is not that will help one get rid of these unpleasant thoughts, it is the person’s ability to constrain itself from thinking about those thoughts while half smiling.

ii.Mindfulness, the second module, is another technique used in DBT groups which helps the individual in getting rid of those negative thoughts.

Individuals are told to focus on the present and be attentive to what is going on around them at the moment.

This helps in breaking the link between their mind and any negative thought that might come to them then.

For example, a person is told to focus on his breath or on the sound of the wind around them, making use of their auditory sense.

iii.The third technique or module of the DBT is distress tolerance skills. This module teaches people to calm themselves down in healthy ways when they are distressed or emotionally overwhelmed.

Individuals are allowed to make wise, rational decisions and take immediate action, rather than being captured by emotionally destructive thoughts that might make the situation worse.

Reality acceptance skills are also learnt under this model so that people fully accept reality and later make plans on how to address the problem.

• Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR)

MBSR is a meditation therapy, used to manage stress or anxiety. It is an 8-week program which includes group sessions.

Mindfulness meditation and Hatha yoga are practiced in these sessions. Lectures and group discussions are also done to talk about mental health and increase interactivity.

In mindfulness meditation the person is told to, for example, focus on the sensations felt while breathing or the rhythm of the chest rising and falling during the process.

This distracts the person’s attention from something stressful to something which is neutral and soothing.

For quick and effective treatment, patients are also given a set of home works, for example 45 minutes of yoga and meditation sessions for 6 days a week and to record their results/feelings in a book or diary for 15 minutes a day.

Whether the cause of Noctiphobia, or any other type of specific phobia is genetics, environmental or both, the best and the most effective way of treating them is by using a combination of both biological treatments (drugs) with cognitive treatment (for example CBT/exposure therapy).