#25: Swallowing Spiders
The urban legend that claims we swallow 7-8 spiders a year in our sleep is a largely untrue belief. You’ll be happy to know that, in reality, it’s highly unlikely that we swallow any spiders regularly while sleeping. Spiders are generally cautious creatures, and the vibrations and warmth of a sleeping human would deter them from crawling into a person’s mouth!
Moreover, humans have a natural reflex to close their mouths when something enters, such as an insect. While isolated incidents of spider ingestion during sleep may occur, they are exceedingly rare. The myth likely arose as a cautionary tale or as an example of how misinformation can spread easily. Either way, there’s no need to worry about an annual spider feast in your sleep—it’s just another one of those enduring and untrue urban legends.