Our lifestyle is perfectly adapted to daytime life. The shops, banks and medical consultations that take place during the day. Even activities that continue during the night decrease their volume of work and/or service. This fact means that people who work at night may see some activities limited, leading to more or less annoying consequences for their daily lives.
However, there are people who freely choose to live a nightlife. These are people who feel a great preference towards the nocturnal world and darkness. In this Psychology-Online article, we expose this trend called Nyctophilia: what it is, causes, symptoms and treatment.
What is nyctophilia
The psychology dictionary of the American Psychiatric Association defines the meaning of nyctophilia as a strong attraction to darkness or night. But is this attraction pathological? The truth is that nyctophilia does not constitute a psychological disorder nor is it included in the diagnostic classifications DSM-5 of the American Psychiatric Association or ICD-11 of the World Health Organization.
In the same way that we do not find references to nyctophilia in diagnostic classifications, we also do not find scientific literature that can guide us about the term.
For all these reasons, it may be interesting to ask ourselves, first of all, if nyctophilia constitutes a psychological problem. In this regard, the definition provided by the psychology dictionary of the American Psychiatric Association does not include pathological connotations. This fact, together with the lack of related scientific literature, leads us to think that It is not a psychological problem.
If preference for night and darkness is a problem, should be investigatedhow many people it affects, that is, its prevalence, what causes are behind the development of this supposed problem, its etiology, how the problem evolves or its development and prognosis, what symptoms define it, how it affects the lives of potential patients and What interventions should we use to treat it.
Causes of nyctophilia
Given the lack of studies and research related to nyctophilia, we cannot establish, with an adequate level of evidence, what causes are behind this preference for darkness and/or night.
Therefore, we must establish hypotheses that must be tested with the particular case. Among these hypotheses about the causes of nyctophilia we present:
- Personal preferences: The differences between day and night can make some people prefer to live more at night. For example, at night there is less noise, fewer people on the street, less light, etc. The well-being that the person can find at night could reinforce the nocturnal preference.
- Aversive stimuli and/or situations: the person is trying to avoid contexts or stimuli that occur during the day.
Symptoms of nyctophilia
Although we have already pointed out that it is not clear that nyctophilia constitutes a psychological problem, in this section we are going to consider the possible symptoms of nyctophilia as characteristics that may appear related to said term.
Alteration of circadian rhythms
The human body follows biological rhythms in a synchronized manner: temperature, sleep, etc. When one of these rhythms is altered, it influences the others. These rhythms also help the body maintain homeostasis, that is, balance.
Biological rhythms are greatly influenced by the action of light, so one of the symptoms of nyctophilia is that Absence of light can cause an alteration in our biological rhythms. More specifically, light greatly influences the sleep-wake cycles. In this article, you will see.
If a person has a great preference for darkness and nighttime, it would not be strange if their circadian rhythms, taking into account the above, are altered.
Possible problems related to activities of daily living
Life is designed to be lived during the hours of sunlight. Many people start working when the sun rises and many others stop when it sets. Stores, banks or doctor’s offices have opening hours that include daylight hours and exclude nighttime hours.
As we said in the previous section, if a person has a preference for the night and spends a large part of the day sleeping, one of the symptoms of nyctophilia is that alters aspects of your daily lifesuch as work problems or interference with social life.
If you want to know how this aspect can affect, in this article, we go into depth about it.
Treatment of nyctophilia
If nyctophilia is not a psychological problem, intervention by health professionals would not be necessary. However, if we consider that the person experiences great discomfort because his preference for darkness and night affects his daily life and/or his biological rhythms, we should plan an intervention derived from a thorough evaluation of the case.
In this evaluation, we will check what are the causes that maintain the preference for the night, for example, if there is some type of anxiety, if there is some type of aversive stimulus associated with the day that is being avoided, etc. Based on this, the professional would design the corresponding intervention to establish a lifestyle more adapted to daytime life.
To achieve this, establishing routines and schedules and carrying out adequate planning can be used.
This article is merely informative, at Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
If you want to read more articles similar to Nyctophilia: what it is, causes, symptoms and treatmentwe recommend that you enter our category.
References
- American Psychiatric Association (2020). APA Dictionary of Psychology. Retrieved from https://dictionary.apa.org
- American Psychiatric Association (2014). DSM-5. Reference guide to the diagnostic criteria of the DSM-5-Breviary. Madrid: Panamericana Medical Editorial.
- World Health Organization (WHO) (2018) International Classification of Diseases, 11th revision. Recovered from https://icd.who.int/es