99 Terrifyingly Creepy Facts I Came Across This Year That Could Keep You Awake All Night

A while ago, I stumbled upon several Reddit threads where people shared the most unsettling facts they knew — and I picked up a few more from the Mytour Community. Here are 99 of them all in one place!

1. "Refrigerators became magnetic because children used to get trapped and die inside them. Prior to 1956, refrigerators could only be opened from the outside."

2. Individuals who gradually lose their sight might experience Charles Bonnet syndrome, which causes them to see hallucinations, including patterns or even people. These hallucinations can persist for years, and there is currently no cure or specific medication to eliminate them. The most common approach is simply acknowledging that these visions are not real and are not linked to any mental health issues.

3. Research indicates that your brain doesn't always cease its activity immediately after clinical death. In fact, you might even hear yourself being declared dead. One case documented up to 30 minutes of brain activity after death in a patient.

4. It has been theorized that there may be a brief moment of awareness after decapitation, as observed in studies conducted on rats.

5. There were even accounts from witnesses who claimed that Anne Boleyn attempted to speak after her beheading.

6. The final execution by guillotine took place in 1977.

7. Speaking of ancient execution methods, one particularly bizarre Roman practice involved beating a person and then sewing them into a bag alongside a live dog, snake, monkey, and chicken, only to throw the whole bag into the ocean.

8. The Romans were infamous for their brutal execution methods, with one of the most gruesome being 'scaphism.' In this method, a victim was force-fed milk and honey, covered in the same, placed in a swamp, and left to be consumed alive by maggots and worms.

9. Another horrendous Roman torture method involved goats licking people's feet. The goats, drawn to the salt, would lick the feet of victims who had soaked them in saltwater. Eventually, the rough goat tongues would wear away the skin, leaving painful wounds that were further aggravated by the salt.

10. Here's an interesting tidbit from ancient Rome: Marcus Licinius Crassus, one of the wealthiest individuals in the late Roman Republic, owned a team of firefighters. Since there was no dedicated fire department at the time, if your building caught fire, Crassus would offer to buy it. If you agreed, he'd extinguish the flames. If not, his firefighters would simply walk away and let the building burn.

11. We've only discovered about 5% of the ocean's mysteries.

12. "If a human bites you, you must immediately seek medical help, as the harmful bacteria in a person's mouth can be deadly if it enters your bloodstream."

13. If you’re baking, you can swap out 65 grams of blood for one egg. The research that discovered this used pig's blood, but it stands to reason that any type of blood would work.

14. While many are aware that numerous people have lost their lives attempting to climb Mount Everest, what’s not commonly known is that many of their bodies and belongings are now used as markers along the trail.

One mountaineer, David Sharp, began succumbing to the cold just a short distance from a body serving as a landmark. Forty climbers passed him without offering assistance. By the time someone realized the frozen figure was actually Sharp, it was already too late.

15. A 26-year-old man named John Edward Jones became trapped in Utah's Nutty Putty Cave in 2009. His body was never recovered, and he passed away there. His remains still lie in the cave today.

16. In about 5 billion years, the sun will cease to exist. As it grows brighter over time, in roughly a billion years, its heat will be sufficient to vaporize Earth's water and render the planet uninhabitable.

17. Although, between climate change, biodiversity decline, and human overpopulation, people could kill the planet long before that!

18. And our universe could be wiped out at any time by a wandering black hole, nearby supernova, vacuum decay, or any number of other things in the galaxy.

19. The fungus Cordyceps has the ability to essentially take over the minds of small insects such as ants, beetles, butterflies, and wasps.

20. In the US, there are around 30 deaths annually caused by elevators and escalators, along with 17,000 injuries each year.

21. Your next cruise might not just be a journey for the living. Many elderly passengers pass away while on board, and accidents do happen, so every cruise ship is equipped with its own morgue.

22. Surprise! They also have prisons.

23. During the time of the "Black Death," some people claimed to hear unsettling gurgling sounds coming from within their boils.

24. The bubonic plague, also known as the Black Death, still exists to this day.

25. Did you realize that a significant number of violent murders remain unsolved? In fact, nearly 40% of all homicides in the US never reach a resolution.

26. The primary cause of death for expectant mothers in the United States is murder — in fact, pregnant women are twice as likely to fall victim to homicide than to die from pregnancy-related complications.

27. "Every day in the United States, an estimated 2,100 children go missing, or roughly one child every 40 seconds."

28. Although the odds of survival and a safe return are quite high, for those children who are abducted and killed, approximately 76% of them are found deceased within three hours, and 88.5% are dead within the first 24 hours. In other words... if a child is abducted by someone intending harm, there's very little time left to locate them before it’s too late.

29. Every five seconds, a child under the age of 15 loses their life somewhere in the world — most often due to preventable causes.

30. Each day, 25,000 individuals die from hunger, including 10,000 children.

Hunger kills people not because there is an insufficient amount of food on Earth, but because of how it is distributed. The reality is that many do not get enough to eat. Even worse, 1.3 billion tons of food are wasted or lost annually.

31. In the past, babies underwent surgeries without anesthesia because doctors believed they couldn't feel pain. This continued well into the 1980s.

32. You've probably heard of zoos, but did you know that many countries, including the US, once had zoos for humans?

These exhibitions were essentially constructed fake villages where Indigenous people, often from Africa, were placed in distorted portrayals of the cultures that (mostly white) countries assumed they lived in. Tragically, many of these individuals died while living in these exhibitions.

Occasionally, individuals were exhibited in cages, often without clothing. One man, Ota Benga, was displayed with an orangutan at the Bronx Zoo in an exhibit that implied a closer evolutionary connection between African people and apes than between white Europeans and apes.

33. In a modern sense, human zoos still exist. For example, an episode of An Idiot Abroad featured a faux village where individuals with dwarfism performed and interacted with tourists.

There has been significant debate regarding whether the Kingdom of the Little People should be considered a human zoo — the residents receive payment — but it undeniably bears similarities to the human zoos of earlier times.

34. In the 16th and 17th centuries, many Europeans ingested "medicines" made from human remains, believing they could heal various health issues.

Some of these substances originated from burial sites, pilfered by grave robbers—others were derived from mummies looted from Egypt. These remains would be ground into powder, then turned into tinctures and even used to create medicinal powders from skulls.

35. The powdered remains of mummies were also used to produce a paint color that became known as "mummy brown."

36. Ever had that eerie feeling that something is terribly wrong? Don’t dismiss it too quickly. A "sense of impending doom" can actually be a symptom of several different health conditions, including a reaction to receiving the wrong type of blood during a transfusion.

37. Right now, you might have an unruptured brain aneurysm without even knowing it, and it could rupture at any moment.

38. Although rare, cracking or popping your neck can actually trigger a stroke.

39. Once rabies sets in, there is no known treatment. With a mortality rate of 99.9%, rabies is the deadliest disease on Earth. The only thing left to do is endure its symptoms until death comes.

40. A later sign of rabies is hydrophobia, or fear of water. Despite feeling extreme thirst, the person will experience spasms and be unable to drink any water.

This might seem minor, but as someone who’s fond of oysters, it’s actually quite unsettling. If you’ve ever come across an oyster that’s cloudy, it essentially means it’s filled with sperm.

Did you know that male chicks from egg-laying hens aren’t raised for good chicken meat? Since they can’t be slaughtered for meat or lay eggs, male chicks, just days old, are frequently either suffocated or crushed alive.

Bestiality is actually permitted in four states: Wyoming, Hawaii, New Mexico, and West Virginia.

Here’s another unsettling fact: 56% of pilots have confessed to dozing off while in the cockpit.

Even more disturbing, of the 56% who admitted to falling asleep, 29% woke up to find their co-pilot also napping. How thrilling!

There’s an 80% likelihood that your toothbrush is contaminated with fecal matter, even if you keep it in a sealed container. Toothbrushes stored outside the bathroom may still carry traces of feces.

Fecal matter is essentially everywhere — including on the sponges you use to wash your dishes.

And to keep things rolling, the average pair of underwear contains roughly one-tenth of a gram of feces.

It’s likely that most ground coffee contains cockroaches. The FDA even permits coffee beans to have up to 10% "insect filth and insects."

You can function with only 25%–30% of your liver, provided you're otherwise healthy. In fact, someone could remove most of your liver and you’d probably still be just fine.

Be cautious if you feel any tickling sensations around your anus! It might be pinworms.

Be cautious of tapeworms as well. They can live in your body for up to 30 years, and many people don’t even show symptoms. They can grow to lengths exceeding 80 feet.

In the 20th century, the chemical conglomerate I.G. Farben produced Zyklon-B gas, which was used in gas chambers during the Holocaust. The workers at their factories included unpaid laborers from concentration camps. That conglomerate later became Bayer.

Bayer also once sold heroin as a remedy for colds, bronchitis, and pneumonia, and it was marketed to children.

When we think of World War II and the Holocaust, we often focus on the atrocities committed by the German army. However, the Japanese military also committed heinous acts, including tossing babies back and forth and impaling them on bayonets, as well as disemboweling women. Even the Nazis were reportedly horrified by the brutality witnessed in Nanking.

In 1859, a massive solar flare known as the Carrington Event occurred. The sky erupted in various colors, and electrical and telegraph systems were disrupted, but that was about all the damage done. The world, however, is far different now compared to 1859.

If a similar solar flare took place today, many electric grids would collapse. Systems such as GPS, ATMs, airplane navigation, satellites, TV broadcasts, and radio signals would be disrupted. It would cost trillions to repair, and the recovery could take years.

A "Carrington-class superstorm" actually occurred in 2012. It passed Earth by only nine days. Remember how everyone thought the world would end that year? Maybe we weren’t as far from the truth as we thought.

Speaking of events that could drastically change the world... The Thwaites eastern ice shelf in Antarctica is showing signs of cracking and splitting, indicating that it could collapse within the next five years. The resulting rise in sea levels would be over 2 feet. While that may not seem like much, consider this: around 250 million people live within 3 feet of high-tide lines. The collapse of Thwaites could set off a chain reaction, causing other glaciers to follow suit and further increasing sea levels. This would put coastal cities, like Miami, at risk of being submerged.

There have been reports about Kim Jong Un and his allies maintaining "pleasure squads" made up of women, some as young as 13. It has also been said that schools recommend certain girls for this role as an "honor."

Do you remember Ducky from *Land Before Time*? This beloved dinosaur was voiced by child actress Judith Eva Barsi, who also appeared in TV shows like *Growing Pains* and starred in movies such as *Jaws: The Revenge.*

Tragically, she was murdered by her father at the age of 10. He also took the life of his wife (Judith's mother) before ending his own. In a chilling twist, Judith had previously portrayed a child murdered by her father in her debut role, in the film *Fatal Vision.*

One of the most terrifying medical conditions (though incredibly rare) is *locked-in syndrome*. In this state, you're fully aware mentally, but you can't move anything except your eyes. If misdiagnosed, doctors and even family might mistakenly believe you're brain-dead.

In the early 1900s, an epidemic called encephalitis lethargica, also known as "sleeping sickness," swept through the world, and its causes remain unclear. This brain disease is believed to have affected over a million people, killing around half of them, while many others lost motor function and experienced psychological distress. The 1990 film *Awakenings*, starring Robin Williams, was inspired by this condition.

"Encephalitis lethargica forces patients to exist without truly living. After periods of deep sleep, where they can be awakened easily but immediately fall back into slumber, they exhibit postencephalitis symptoms. The main one is that they remain fully conscious, but their bodies can't move — similar to locked-in syndrome — and they experience overwhelming apathy. They even know they feel indifferent but cannot express emotions. They're completely trapped, until something, like a ball being thrown at them, sparks an immediate, perfect response. This is just an example, but the phenomenon of seeming immobile and then suddenly being able to move is characteristic of the condition." — u/followthemusic_

- u/L4EVUR

If you care about online privacy, this will catch your attention: "Even if you don't have a Facebook account, Facebook still creates a 'shadow profile' on you. This profile gathers information from all across the internet, including details like your age, name, location, and interests. This way, when you eventually create a Facebook account, they already know a lot about you."

There are several lost nuclear weapons scattered across the world's oceans, some of which are far too hazardous to attempt to recover. In total, there have been 32 nuclear weapon accidents, with at least six of those weapons never being found.

66. In 1961, the US accidentally dropped nuclear bombs on North Carolina. They didn't explode, but had they, the explosion would have been 260 times more powerful than the Hiroshima nuclear strike.

67. The US president holds complete authority to deploy nuclear weapons at any given moment.

The president doesn't execute the order personally, but as long as it's confirmed as valid, those responsible must act upon it.

68. Have you ever wondered what happens when someone passes away aboard a plane?

It turns out, they are typically left in their seat or relocated to the rear row if there’s space available.

Half of all homeless individuals in the United States have been through the foster care system at some point in their lives.

Additionally, a quarter of children in foster care will face homelessness within two to four years after turning 18.

Prion diseases, which are rare and fatal brain disorders, can be contracted at any time from consuming contaminated meat, among other causes. These diseases are always deadly.

One such disorder is fatal insomnia, where the individual loses the ability to sleep, their coordination and mental abilities deteriorate, and eventually, death occurs.

73. If you need another reason to be fearful, there have been several documented instances of spontaneous human combustion throughout history, and some of them can't be completely explained.

74. Bayer, the pharmaceutical company, developed a blood-clotting drug for individuals with hemophilia in the 1980s. It utilized donated plasma before HIV testing was available. This led to thousands of hemophiliacs contracting HIV, and Bayer, along with other companies, had to pay $600 million in settlements for lawsuits.

Even worse? Bayer introduced a modified version of the drug that was heat-treated to eliminate HIV, which they sold to the US and Europe, while continuing to sell the older version in Latin America and Asia.

75. When you think of a chainsaw, you probably associate it with cutting wood — or, like me, you think of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Interestingly, it was originally created to assist with childbirth. When babies were obstructed during delivery, doctors would remove part of the pelvic bone and cartilage to create space, and the medical chainsaw invented for this purpose helped with the process.

76. In 1965, a unique invention was introduced that aimed to assist in childbirth by utilizing centrifugal force — essentially spinning the person — to help a woman deliver her baby.

77. Although it may seem more peculiar than unsettling, it is a fact that one out of every 200 men alive today shares a genetic link to the legendary conqueror, Genghis Khan.

If you have a dog, you likely find it adorable when they play with their squeaky toy. You might be surprised, however, to learn that dogs are attracted to these toys because they make noises similar to those of small prey animals.

They shake the toy back and forth because this is a behavior wild dogs and wolves use to kill their prey in the wild.

79. If you pass away at home and aren’t discovered for days, your pets will eat you.

80. There have been instances where unconscious individuals were started to be eaten by their pets.

81. Here’s an animal fact: Male dolphins have been known to "forcefully copulate" with females and, in certain cases, even kill their offspring to pressure them into mating.

82. Adult otters have been reported to rape and kill other otters and baby seals. They are also known to engage in necrophilia, and some male otters even hold mother otters' young hostage.

83. When a new male lion takes control of a pride, he kills all the cubs. He’s not their father, and he doesn’t want to waste time raising offspring that don’t carry his genes. Plus, female lions nursing their young aren’t interested in mating, and the new male lion won’t tolerate that.

84. On the Galápagos Islands, some finches have evolved to sustain themselves by consuming the blood of other birds. These "vampire finches" resort to drinking blood when food is scarce, and even feed on chicks when the opportunity arises.

85. There have been reports of turkeys attacking and eating each other alive.

86. In addition to pigs,

87. Moray eels possess a second set of jaws and teeth within their throat. They initially grab their prey with their primary jaws, and then the second set can move forward, either pulling the prey deeper into their throat or continuing to consume larger prey without releasing it.

88. Here’s another small yet unsettling fact: King cobras are capable of growling.

89. Some snake venom is capable of causing your blood to clot so rapidly that it almost turns to jelly.

90. Squirrels are not strictly herbivores, but are in fact omnivores. Occasionally, they hunt, kill, and consume other creatures, such as chipmunks, which are a type of squirrel themselves.

91. Starfish often perform digestion outside their bodies. They extend their stomachs, secrete enzymes to break down and liquefy their prey, and then absorb the nutrients back into their system.

92. And here's a sobering fact: "60% of all wildlife has vanished since 1970, and the decline continues."

93. Here's a chilling tidbit: The horrifying scream of the demon in The Exorcist was made using recordings of pigs' cries as they were about to be slaughtered.

94. Here's another eerie fact about The Exorcist: One of the X-ray technicians in the film later became a convicted murderer.

95. You can never fully perceive your own face. What you see are only reflections or photos. You'll never truly know exactly how you look.

96. We don't experience time as a simple progression, but rather in relation to how much we've lived. That's why the years seem to pass faster as we age. In reality, half of your "perceived life" is gone by the time you turn 7.

97. "A toddler's adult teeth are positioned right beneath their eyes."

98. There exists a type of tumor called a teratoma that can develop teeth, hair, and even organs.

99. And now... this is what a horse's foot looks like without the hoof. Apologies.