Do spiders crawl into your mouth at night?

According to Dave Clarke, head of invertebrates at London Zoo, spiders are also unlikely to deliberately seek out a human.

He told the BBC: “Most predators won’t tackle anything bigger than themselves because they are likely to come off worse. They are just not interested in us at all really.”

So on the whole, experts acknowledge that it is possible a spider could find its way into your mouth while you are sleeping, but the chances are very slim – so it is not worth losing sleep over.

There have also been reports of spiders biting humans, but in the UK bites from spiders are “uncommon”, according to the NHS.