It Wiggled and Giggled and Tickled inside her...

Okay, so I don't know how many of you have heard that people swallow 4-6 spiders at night in a year, but let me tell you this. I woke up in the middle of the night last night with the HICCUPS. Seriously, who gets hiccups in their sleep? Please tell me someone does... and if you could tell me it's normal I'd really appreciate that, too.

Of course the first thing I did this morning was look up this urban legend to see if there's any real truth to it. Here are a couple of my favorite responses, although they by no means really make me feel any better. What do you think?

Is it true that the average person 'eats' upto 4 spiders in their sleep during their lifetime?

• This rumour was started in 1993 by Lisa Holst, a columnist for a computing magazine. The article focused on the increasingly common lists of "facts" which had begin to circulate on the internet in the early 1990s. To illustrate her point Holst made up her own list of supposed "facts", one of which was the claim that the average person swallows up to eight spiders per year. In this particular instance Holst apparently took her inspiration from collection of common misbeliefs printed in a 1954 book on insect folklore. It is, of course, wonderfully ironic that Holst's "false fact" has since become one of the most widely spread myths on the internet.
  Rob Stanton, Cambridge, UK

• Remove "in your sleep" and it might be true. At least in the US, the legal limits on insect parts (I expect the regulators include spiders, for simplicity) in processed foods is large enough so that over time it's easy to imagine eating the equivalent of eight spiders - though you might have trouble putting the parts together to make even one.
  William Westbrook, Plainsboro, USA

• I can believe things crawl in your mouth, ears, nose, etc. when you are asleep. I have woken with ants on my face, a cockroach on my forehead, and a fly on my nose. I have, when awake though, swallowed bees, moths, ants and probably other things I can't remember. The bee was scary because I thought it would sting going down. I guess it didn't: I'm still alive.
  John, Bethlehem, USA

• My uncle told me this when I was about 4 or 5. I was so impresionable (and terrified of spiders) at that age that to this day, 30 something years later, I grind my teeth so badly at night trying to keep my mouth shut and the spiders out that I wake people up!! So glad to hear it's a myth. Maybe I can learn to stop grinding my teeth now!
  Michele M, Melrose, USA

• I sleep with my mouth wide open especially after a stressful day at work. I actually awoke one night with a full grown cockroach in my mouth! More amazingly, the "event" was captured in my dream hence my suddenly waking-up to find the thing in there. Of course I did not "eat" it up but swat it off. Spiders might end up the same way but not necessarily eaten-up.
  Nick P, Cebu City, Philippines
  
  
  http://www.guardian.co.uk/notesandqueries/query/0,5753,-23997,00.html