Unknowingly swallowing spiders while asleep

Urban legend.

Interesting, but are you SURE? I used to have a bedroom in the basement when I was a teenager and I used to wake up in the morning with spider bites all over me. The doctor confirmed it was spider bites. I sleep with my mouth open. It only makes sense that a spider at some point while it was crawling on my face would crawl into my mouth. And what would you do if you do if your mouth tickled while sleeping? Shut it, probably do that little chewy thing people do when they sleep, and at some point, swallow.

Yes. It comes from an article written by Lisa Holst in 1993, which focused on the so-called "facts" that people believe just because they read it on the internet. Ironically enough, the myth comes from Holst's own list of made-up "facts", which she had invented to illustrate her point (apparently she drew inspiration from a collection of common misbeliefs printed in a 1954 book on insect folklore).

Excuse me, but I don't think that actually proves that it doesn't happen...

I also cannot prove that the sun is not going to self destruct at noon tomorrow.

Furthermore I can't prove that the messiah will not come before this happens.

I friggin' hate spiders.

I reckon a quoted and referenced text on the subject has more credibility than writing the word 'Fact' at the end of a sentence.

Reminded me instantaneously of someone who writes/wrote "Truth" at end of each sentence...

Negative proof is a logical fallacy. The spider-eating myth has been debunked by Snopes, and I already cited the link.

I was making fun of another poster and a thread on the subject by writing "Fact". Is my humor really that hard to follow?

Anyway, in science you never prove something, you just try to disprove it and the less you succeed, the more you deem it to be true.

I am glad you all have written sources saying this never happens. But just think about it, it makes SENSE. Maybe I just come from a more spider-infested place. But the critters are around, they crawl around everywhere at night while you are sleeping, and I find it hard to believe that they DON'T EVER get into your mouth.

Just because someone makes something up doesn't mean it isn't true.

Have scientists observed people sleeping in basement, spider-infested bedrooms and been able to document over thousands of nights that it NEVER happened? I think not.

Mad Axe -- I can't prove that the sun won't blow up tomorrow, but the fact that it hasn't done so yet is fairly good proof that it won't happen tomorrow. Where is the factual basis proving that spiders crawl everywhere EXCEPT in human oral cavities?

Awesome sunrise this morning...I love the smell of napalm in the morning.

If your statement was just a joke, why are you defending it?


I didn't say it "never" happens, just that your so-called "fact" is based an urban legend which was specifically invented to demonstrate how gullible people are. And no, it doesn't "make sense" for spiders to intentionally climb into your mouth. True spiders evolved about 400 million years ago, and were among the first species to live on land. It is not a very effective survival instinct to intentionally climb into the mouth of a natural predator (some mammals, including humans, deliberately choose to eat spiders). There is no way a spider is going to intentionally go near your mouth.

Once again, the urban legend is debunked by Scopes here: http://www.snopes.com/science/stats/spiders.asp

The Straight Dope also wrote a response: http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mspidereat.html

If I was a spider I don't think I would crawl into a cavity where there was a constant flow of hot air coming out. We do breathe when we sleep

I didn't say my statement was a joke. I guess it wasn't clear .. I was saying that putting "Fact" after it was a joke, based on another poster who always wrote that after his statements.

I lived in the desert. Spiders seek water. Human mouths are moist. Duh.

"99% of the spiders swallowed are almost too small to see, and you wouldn't feel them even if you swallowed them while awake. I know I won't lose any sleep over it. "

Quote from the second article cited by AquaticMeringue. Written by spider expert a person whose job it is to debunk myths.

I didn't say people are munching big tarantulas or even something the size of what was in topcat's pic. It just happens, that is my point.

Would you stick your head into the mouth of a crocodile? Spiders are not suicidal, they are not going to intentionally climb into the mouth of a predator.


Context, please: "Put it all together, and it would be a miracle for a spider to end up in anyone's mouth while they're sleeping, except for one rare circumstance--when a spider egg sac hatches indoors...If you're in a house where a bunch of microscopic spiders are ballooning around, you MIGHT accidentally inhale about a dozen one night, IF the air were circulating sufficiently for them to get airborne and stay there long enough to drift in front of your face. The odds of such a thing are obviously quite small, but it surely happens to someone somewhere from time to time, and that will boost the average--but not enough that I would believe that the AVERAGE person inhales the contents of one egg sac in their lifetime...The majority of people probably never swallow ANY spiders in their sleep, so the statistic will be composed of a fair number of people (still a tiny minority) that swallow one or two by accident, plus a vanishingly tiny handful of people who swallow a large number, due to a freak occurrence as above."


The majority people will never eat a spider. A tiny minority may accidently inhale microscopic spiders (or even have a grown spider fall into their mouth) in extremely rare circumstances. That's not quite the same as "People unknowingly eat spiders while they are sleeping. Fact."

Well if we're being pedantic. As long as more than one person in the history of mankind has unkowingly eaten a spider in their sleep, her statement is actually true.

Now the question is, can we find 2 people in the history of mankind who have indeed unknowingly eaten a spider in their sleep?

AM, are you just that grossed out by it? Believe what you will, if it makes you sleep better. If you think about it logically, it just makes way more sense that it would happen than that it wouldn't. Plus, I didn't post a specific number. Anyone saying there has never been a sleeping person who swallowed a spider is just wrong.

Edit: See ERs post above. In my research I found a person who claims to have filmed spiders crawling into mouths but have yet to find the video...will make a vague effort to find "proof" for those who won't accept logic.

"Would you stick your head into the mouth of a crocodile?"

No I wouldn't, but, I hate to break it to you, people have been known to be eaten by crocodiles. Surely the person did not intend to get eaten, it was an accident. So if person can make this mistake, surely a spider can. Or are they so much smarter than people?

By eating spiders, or by urban legends posted as fact? The former doesn't bother me, but the latter irritates me.


How does it make sense for a species that's survived over 400 million years to climb into the mouth of one of its natural predators at night?


It's something that may happen in extremely rare situations - just like a human may accidently fall into the mouth of a sleeping crocodile. But it's still misleading to tell people that "Crocodiles unknowingly eat humans while they are sleeping. Fact."

P.S.: Puppys shoot people who try to kill them. Fact.

Spiders are great at surviving, but not because each one is so brilliant as to avoid dying, but because they have so many babies.

Next, you'll be saying that rattlesnakes are too smart to get into warm sleeping bags with campers on cold nights because they must know we are their mortal enemy. Critters are not always as brilliant as you seem to think they are. There must be some developmentally retarded spiders out there who fall off ceilings or get sucked in by a strong snore or don't associate a moist warm breeze with being eaten...

AM, lol, the puppy DID shoot the man who tried to kill him. So it is a fact. AND?

this link and this link also declare the human nocturnal spider swallowing to be a myth.
all I can say is *phew* I hope it is a myth cuz I am scared poo-less of spiders and the thought of them crawling into my mouth at night is horrid!

Anyone remember the original context? A funny anecdote about killing a spider, someone adding they were struck by the fact that there are 3 spiders in every room, then I added to the generally jocular thread the statement that, not only are there spiders in every room, but some of them get consumed. I personally am convinced it happens. If you don't believe it, I don't care.

AM, are you so adamantly arguing this point because you are worried I might infect the minds of the innocent and gullible with terrible lies about spider-consumption? Though looking at Moonboot's post, I suppose you are defending the peace of mind of those who don't like spiders.

Does it even really matter if it is true or not? I don't care. I'd prefer to swallow the spidre than to have it bite me.

The main point here that I see, though, is that, if the claimed "truth" of people swallowing the spiders can be debunked, so can the claimed "truth" that it is not true be debunked. I do not doubt that this woman plucked this "fact" out of the air and used it as an example of a "made up" fact. But just because she made it up doesn't mean it isn't true. Thousands of years ago, a person like her could have said---"The world is round!----oh, haha, I just made that up. What fools you were to believe me" -- but the world indeed did end up being round.

Okay, if I ever win the lottery, I will donate my newfound riches to the research of arachnid consumption while sleeping...

How often do you hear stories about rattlesnakes slithering into campers' mouths? Maybe it's happened, but you don't hear people saying "Campers unknowingly eat rattlesnakes while they are sleeping. Fact."

A spider might climb over you, or even into your ear, but your breath will scare it off. You are one of its predators; a species doesn't survive for 400 million years by deliberately serving itself up as a midnight snack.


The point being that it was a fluke. Just like eating spiders in your sleep.

AHA, but it happens, thank you for conceding the point.

(p.s. rattlesnakes are a bit bigger than spiders. FYI.)

Is that thread rot I smell?

ff

At no point did I claim it could never happen - even on the previous page I pointed out that a "tiny minority may accidently inhale microscopic spiders (or even have a grown spider fall into their mouth) in extremely rare circumstances". But the point is it's a random fluke that will never happen to most people; spiders are not going to intentionally climb into your mouth.


It could still fall from a tree overhead, and its head slip into your mouth.

Get a room guys and report back if any spiders crawled into either of your mouths.

My husband woke up one night because a spider was crawling across his cheek. He had just turned the light out and was drifting off to sleep (I was already asleep) when he felt it. He shouted loud and turned the light on, which woke me up in one second flat.
So who knows if spidy would have actually crawled into his mouth if it had been (as it often is) open. He was certainly going in that direction...

Don't male spiders get eaten by the female after mating? Or at least some species of spider do. So if a spider crawls into your mouth to get eaten, maybe it's just his way of telling you he loves you?

xkcd

Ok get a little round tupperware dish, put something gooey in it & stick it in your mouth before bed & see how many spiders are in there in the morning...solved

Obviously, you ain't cookin' them right.

Ha, reminds me of a conversation in my office years ago -

Woman a: "You know that you probably swallow Spiders when you are asleep!"

Woman b: "Not a chance, thats why I wear underwear in bed!"

Well, in woman B's defence, she didn't say where she chose to wear her underwear at night...??

Or maybe, was she blonde by any chance?


Maybe it's not as regular of an occurance as is told, but I do definately believe it's possible to swallow them.