Do we swallow spiders in our sleep?
By bmorehouse1
@bmorehouse1 (1028)
United States
August 10, 2008 4:57pm CST
There is a legend that says we swallow spiders in our sleep. Some say we swallow 4 per year and others say we swallow up to 20 in our lifetime. How does anyone know? Do they stay awake to see how many spiders might crawl into their sleeping partners mouth? According to scientists there is no basis for the stories. They state that for a sleeping person to swallow even one live spider would involve so many highly unlikely circumstances that for practical purposes we can rule out the possiblity. No such case is on formal record in scientific or medical literature. Yeah!!! I don't want to believe that I might be swallowing spiders while I sleep! Ugh! I think that I will believe what they say over the legends! What do you think? Do you really believe that we might be swallowing those awful things in our sleep? Also where do you think these silly legends come from?
3 people like this
5 responses
@bmorehouse1 (1028)
• United States
10 Aug 08
I am probably one of those people who sleep with their mouth open. Of course I've not stayed awake to find out. Ha, ha!
1 person likes this
@psphacker (1053)
• United States
10 Aug 08
if you are dreaming,you are with the dentist and he is telling you to open your mouth and you are opening it than the answer for you is a yes that is way i sleep with my mouth facing my mattress to prevent the extinction of spiders lol.
1 person likes this
@bmorehouse1 (1028)
• United States
10 Aug 08
I'm pretty sure my mouth does not face my mattress, so I just hope this is all science fiction cause I don't want to think about swallowing spiders!
1 person likes this
@crunkyjens (463)
• United States
11 Aug 08
I have heard this farce/legend for quite some time. I don't think there's a certain number of spiders that someone swallows in their lifetime. I think if the opportunity presents itself with us laying with our mouth open and a spider is in teh area it COULD happen but you never know. I think the odds of it are VERY slim! I found an article about the legend on snopes.com.
http://www.snopes.com/science/stats/spiders.asp
According to this site it talks about this lady who in 1993 took this "legend" from a 1954 book written about insect folklore and wanted to see how easily people would believe something like this. They said when you hear whatever version of the legend you hear it's probably stemming from this experiment she did. Very interesting!
@belindabentley (223)
• United States
10 Aug 08
This is a great post - gross, but great. I dont know. I think someone has done it before for sure... but on a regular everyone doing it? No, I dont agree because it make me feel sick to think about it.
@bmorehouse1 (1028)
• United States
10 Aug 08
I only hope that we don't do it on a regular basis. Now that I've started this discussion, I hope I don't dream about it tonight! Yuk!
@nickmarz333 (141)
• United States
10 Aug 08
Well I certainly hope not because that would make me gag up a storm. But you never know, spiders do come out at night and there are quite a lot of them. Ha ha hopefully no snakes crawl inside us.
1 person likes this
@bmorehouse1 (1028)
• United States
10 Aug 08
I agree with you. I just want to gag just thinking about it!
1 person likes this
