Night light

The night can be a very scary place for some people isnt it so that most of the bad things in life happen at night?
When we were in Christchurch and having all the earthquakes and aftershocks I sometimes found myself awake during the night feeling very uptight and anxious counting the minutes till the sun would rise. Things always seen better in the morning.

It got me thinking.....

How did the earlier generations cope without street lighting and electricity it must have been awfully dark and scary in some places at night????