I bet if I did a few days in the wilderness my need for sleep would overcome the perceived need for vigilance, and I'd probably start sleeping better.

I think there's some kind of psychological/physiological feedback loop that goes on in those moments at night where you feel compelled to run to the door or switch the lights on or whatever. Sometimes rationality just doesn't help.

I think fear of the dark isn’t so much childish but rather an antagonistic imagination that triggers your own flight response kind of like a panic attack’s negative feedback loop divorced from any idea that you were in danger.

I have a fear of the dark, for lack of a better term. I can put myself in the shoes of characters in horror movies and feel their fear. Meanwhile my girlfriend is incapable of it. Not because I somehow believe in things that go bump in the night (I don’t) and she doesn’t, but rather it’s some sort of mental quirk that she doesn’t experience.

I’ve embraced it, though. Whenever I’m doing something like solo camping or running through the woods at night, I like to enumerate terrifying scenarios and then when I get home, jot them into my notes app and sometimes stub them out into short stories that I submit to those scary story youtube channels or r/nosleep.

Anyways, I’ve thought a lot about why I would have this fear reflex while others don’t. Doesn’t seem to be much explanation. I’m in my thirties. Embrace the thrill.