We have all heard the rumour, right? That over a lifetime, humans swallow around 20 spiders in our sleep. Now, given that the average life expectancy in the UK is over the age of 80, that’s not too bad.

Of course, it is still a slightly unnerving thought — us swallowing down our 8-legged houseguests while we’re slumbering is hardly ideal and, a bit of an argument for hopping on the mouth-taping trend.

But is it true?

Do we really swallow spiders in our sleep?

If these crawlies give you the creeps, you’re in luck. 

“You’ve got a better chance of winning the Powerball than having a spider fall in your mouth while you’re sleeping,” Floyd Shockley, entomologist and collections manager at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, told the Washington Post in 2023.

Dr Matt Wilkinson, from Cambridge University’s department of zoology agreed with this, saying to the BBC: “It is a myth - though one that many people accept as reality...

“Very few spiders in Britain can bite you and the only possible one is the false widow - it’s pretty big and you’d wake up if that was in your throat,” Dr Wilkinson says.

“It’s not going to crawl in there - there’s air going in and out and it’s just not going in there.”

Finally, Nebraska Medical Center points out that our mouths are... hardly appealing. They explain: “Your open, moist mouth isn’t appealing to a spider.

Spiders breathe oxygen and would be repelled by your mouth, which to them would seem like a warm, moist cave that is mostly carbon dioxide and water vapour.”

Well, that’s a relief.

Are there any dangerous spiders in the UK?

Let’s say the (almost) impossible happens and we swallow a spider. Should we be worried?

BBC Science Focus agree with Dr Wilkinson and states that while we may have some species of spider that are harmful, which can be found in our homes and gardens, they’re not aggressive.

The experts added: “Even if you were unlucky enough to get bitten it is extremely unlikely that the bite would develop into anything more than short-lived, low-level pain. Some spider species have venoms that might also cause some localised swelling or itching.”

To be honest, I think we are safe.