The color black may forever be linked with fashion, but it’s also the color of darkness and grief, of night and monsters. In our shared prehistory, things that lurked unseen in the darkness, like enemies, predators and the landscape itself, could kill us. When we can’t see anything, we fear everything. And so on some level we’re all still afraid of the dark, which, at its most extreme, is called nyctophobia.
Pacific Islander woman by illuminated banyan tree © Masterfile
Forest road and milky way at night, British Columbia, Canada © Masterfile
While full of mysteries and dangers, night is also a time of loosening inhibitions as well as blossoming creativity. This is partly due to the fact that our frontal lobes don’t put the brakes on the wild and wacky thoughts that occur to us as we burn through the last bits of our energy for the day. Night owl? Your most creative time may actually be early morning.
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Young woman with laptop © Masterfile
Woman Hiding from Man © Arian Camilleri / Masterfile
Flock of white geese in foggy field © Ben Seelt / Masterfile