You Eat About 70 Bugs a Year While Sleeping

The notion that we unknowingly swallow a significant number of insects while we sleep is a persistent and unsettling piece of trivia. However, entomologists and sleep experts largely dismiss this specific claim as a myth. From an insect's perspective, a sleeping human is a terrifying landscape. The vibrations from a heartbeat, the sounds of breathing and snoring, and the warm, carbon dioxide-rich air we exhale all act as powerful deterrents, not attractions. Most small creatures, like spiders, are highly sensitive to these signals and would actively avoid the danger posed by a human mouth.

This widely-circulated statistic is often traced back to a 1993 magazine article written to demonstrate how easily misinformation can spread online. The author fabricated a list of "facts," including the one about swallowing spiders, to show how gullible people could be. The myth took hold and has been circulating as truth ever since, evolving to include a specific number of various bugs. While it's not strictly impossible for a tiny gnat or a disoriented ant to end up being swallowed by a deep sleeper, the odds of this happening are incredibly low, and certainly not a regular occurrence.

In reality, we consume far more insect fragments while we are awake, and we do so completely legally. Regulatory agencies like the FDA have established acceptable levels for natural defects in processed foods. This means that trace amounts of insects are permitted in everyday products like peanut butter, chocolate, and flour. So, while you can rest easy knowing your mouth is not a nightly bug trap, you are almost certainly getting your small dose of insect protein through your regular diet.