Unsolved:Monster under the bed

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Short description: Childhood fear

A monster under a person's bed

A common childhood phobia is the fear of a monster under the bed or similarly a monster in the closet or monster in the wardrobe. It is associated with the fear of the dark, the fear that there are monsters that cannot be seen due to the darkness.[1]

Origin

A theorised origin of the fear of monsters under the bed is that it may have evolved by human ancestors to avoid attacks by predators. Sexual size dimorphism of the human ancestor Australopithecus afarensis may have led females to sleep in trees and males to sleep on the ground, possibly leading females to anticipate attacks from below and males anticipating attacks from around them. A 2021 study interviewed boys and men and girls and women and found that males recalled monsters in their dreams beside them at higher rates than below them, but for females there was not much difference.[2]

American psychologist Peter Gray suggests that the fear relates to the possibility of monsters hiding in "any place where you can't see", and that the connection to the bed in particular may arise from examples seen on television or in stories, saying that "I would imagine the basic fear is innate, but the specific forms of the fear would probably be influenced by experience".[1]

Bed

  • The monster under the bed appears in the 1978 children's book Is That a Monster, Alfie Atkins?
  • The monster under the bed appears in the 1987 children's book The Monster Bed.
  • The 1989 fantasy comedy film Little Monsters has the protagonist (portrayed by Fred Savage) befriends a monster under the bed (portrayed by Howie Mandel).
  • The 1993 film The Nightmare Before Christmas featured a creature under the bed (voiced by Carmen Twillie) with sharp teeth and glowing eyes who was only seen during the musical number "This is Halloween".
  • The Dinosaurs episode "Monster Under the Bed" had Baby Sinclair dealing with a monster under the bed that turns out to be true when Charlene takes a peek and is dragged under causing Baby and Robby to rescue her. It is then discovered that the Sinclair Family was built on top of the burrow of a Glyptodon-like creature (performed by Allan Trautman who was uncredited for the role) leading to a standoff with the police that is broadcast on DNN. Baby came up with a compromise to have the Sinclair family house moved off of the creature's house.
  • The 2014 Doctor Who episode "Listen" involves the fear of something grabbing one's foot when leaving bed.
  • The 2025 American fantasy action film Dust Bunny detailed a monster under the bed that killed a girl's parents. It was depicted as a giant vicious rabbit.

Closet

  • The 1987 horror film Monster in the Closet detailed a monster in the closet.
  • The 2001 Pixar film Monsters, Inc. and its franchise has the screams of children are harvested as energy through doors that activate portals to children's bedroom closets in order to harvest their screams.

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "How Monsters Under The Bed Became A Common Childhood Fear". Fatherly. 17 July 2018. https://www.fatherly.com/health/monsters-under-the-bed-childhood-fears. 
  2. ↑ Coss, Richard G. (2021-09-01). "Something Scary Is Out There: Remembrances of Where the Threat Was Located by Preschool Children and Adults with Nighttime Fear" (in en). Evolutionary Psychological Science 7 (3): 239–253. doi:10.1007/s40806-021-00279-9. ISSN 2198-9885. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40806-021-00279-9. 



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