hehe...
I was afraid of the dark as a young lad as well. But I actually rigged an "automatic light turner outer" at night - much to the dismay of my dad when he saw what I did.
My light switch was in the up position when the lights were on, and you flicked it to the down position to turn the lights out. So, I fastened one pulley to the ceiling above the light switch, and one pulley on the floor beneath the light switch. After cutting a small groove in the light switch itself so the strings wouldn't come off, I tied two long different colour strings to the switch. One string went through the upper pulley, one string through the lower pulley. The other ends were tied to my bedposts. I could then go to bed at night, and when I wanted to turn the lights out I pulled the red string. If I had to get up in the middle of the night, I could pull the other string (not sure why I colour coded that one, how do you see the green string if it's dark?!?
).
It took a couple of days for my Dad to notice that I cut up the light switch, and bolted things to the floor and ceiling. When he did, he really wanted to get angry, but was so impressed that at like eight years old I figured out how to do this, that he got a good laugh out of it and let me keep it. I used that thing for a good couple of years before I lost my fear of the dark!
Needless to say, my Mom and Dad to this day remind me of this, and even show my daughters what Daddy did when he was afraid of the dark every time we visit.