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50 Unsettling Facts To Think About When You Won’t Be Able To Fall Asleep At 3 A.M.
Sometimes, the world isn't cute, clever, or quirky—it's genuinely terrifying. That's the feeling Threads user Shady_ET tapped into when they asked for facts that weren't just interesting but also downright scary.
What followed was a flood of 1,800+ replies, with people sharing everything from scientific discoveries to corporate secrets and bizarre everyday phenomena.
So in order to save you some time, we went through the discussion and put together a list of the most memorable entries that hit harder than cheap jump scares.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
You can be convicted of 34 felonies and still become president.
RELATED:
#2
Approximately 75% of women ki**led by their ab**ers are m**dered when they try to leave or after they have left the relationship. This makes leaving an abusive relationship a particularly dangerous time for women. The most dangerous time for a woman in an a**sive relationship is when she attempts to leave or has just left. And people are still going on with the "if it was so bad why didn't she just leave??" Bulls**t!
Louisa Mary Leonard 3 months ago
I called a woman's refuge. The first question is can you go to family or friend as we don't want to take you if you can. I only took this option as my family was over 2 hours drive away from my a****r, otherwise I would have said no, the police decided that the travel time would be enough for him to calm down and not want to hurt me.
Over the past decade, three researchers from Chapman University have explored the psyche of America, uncovering the top fears that haunt the nation. In 2024, the biggest ones were:
- Corrupt Government Officials (65.2% very afraid or afraid)
- People I Love Becoming Seriously Ill (58.4%)
- Cyberterrorism (58.3%)
- People I Love Dying (57.8%)
- Russia Using Nuclear Weapons (55.8%)
- Not Having Enough Money for the Future (55.7%)
- U.S. Becoming Involved in Another World War (55.0%, tied)
- North Korea Using Nuclear Weapons (55.0%, tied)
- Terrorist Attack (52.7%)
- Biological Warfare (52.5%)
#3
Idk, the older I get the more I’m horrified by this simple truth: It doesn’t have to be this way.
Humans (if only a few whom have hoarded wealth and power amongst themselves) have chosen to make the world the way it is.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
#4
40 million people worldwide are trapped in modern slavery right now including forced labor, human trafficking, and sexual exploitation. Many are children. And the clothes, electronics, and food we use daily are often linked to that suffering.
iseefractals 3 months ago
Outdated, it's actually 50 million people, and where are these majority of these incidents taking place? North Korea, India, China, the middle east and throughout most of Africa. Electronics, clothing, agriculture, mineral fertilizers, mining, chocolate, coffee....pretty much everything. Ever bought peeled, or pre-minced garlic? Most of it comes from china. There was an expose a few years ago covering garlic, where prisoners and outright slaves are forced to peel it by hand in such large quantities that their fingernails fall off. And no, the fact that they have bloody nubs doesn't prevent them from being forced to continue handling food.
According to the researchers on the Chapman University Survey of American Fears, the nation's number one fear in 2024 was corrupt government officials, but this isn't anything new: it's topped the study every year since 2015.
"Fear of corrupt government officials, that's always up there," says Christopher Bader, professor of sociology and the lead investigator on the project. "We think that is reflecting an overall sense amongst people, regardless of political affiliation, that the government is just not working, it is corrupt."
#5
More pregnant women die of homicide than any thing else.
Miss Ann Thrope 3 months ago
True. The number one cause of death of pregnant women is being killed by their partner.
#6
There are more wars going on in the world than you think. Most people are occupied with Ukraine or Syria; but there are at least 20 to 30 armed conflicts going on at any particular time. The only continent that does have an active war going on is Australia.
Rori McKenzie 3 months ago
I think the last sentence is incorrect...isn't it missing the word "not"
#7
That little twitch, the feeling that you fall, when you’re just about to fall asleep? Sleep myoclonus. The natural way of your body to find out if you’re falling asleep or dying.
Upstaged75 3 months ago
Myoclonic jerk. So annoying when you're actually just trying to sleep and are not actively dying.
While people are perennially concerned about not having enough money, the fear of economic collapse—last year's number two fear—has dropped out of the top 10 list. However, fear of cyberterrorism has grown by 9%, moving it into third position in the rankings.
While the study demonstrates how American fears rise and fall due to current events, it sometimes shows the opposite—that what people fear doesn't always reflect reality.
This disparity is glaringly obvious when it comes to crime.
"The vast majority of our respondents said that crime rates are rising dramatically, and they're just wrong,” says Bader.
#8
There’s a house in my neighbourhood just on the other side of the road and downhill from a cemetery, and the occupants noticed that this weird greasy stuff was on the walls in the basement.
Y’know what it was?
Fat from 170 years of burials, seeping into the ground and running downhill.
#9
Pepsi won a lawsuit against a person claiming to have found a rat or mouse in their can of Mtn Dew because they proved that it would have dissolved by the time it reached the consumer.
#10
PMP cancer,the type I have and Audrey Hepburn died of, produces a jelly like mucus that fills your internal spaces and squeezes your organs, like your stomach, till you can't eat enough and die from starvation.
This phenomenon is well documented. For example, FBI data has shown the nation's crime rate declined over the past three decades, but over half of Americans have said they believe there is more crime than the year before in nearly every Gallup survey conducted since 1993.
One of the reasons for this misperception is an increased dependence on social media and news sites that rely on page views and engagement for revenue. Articles with attention-grabbing headlines are more likely to be shared, and a flood of dire warnings keeps readers glued to their phones doomscrolling.
#11
There’s a rare medical condition called “locked-in syndrome” where a person is fully conscious and aware of everything happening around them, but completely unable to move or speak. They can hear conversations, feel pain, and even understand when doctors pronounce them “vegetative,” but they can only communicate through tiny eye movements, if anyone even notices.
Powerful Katrinka 3 months ago
I spent 5 days in the ICU because my sodium levels were too low. I asked why they couldn’t just raise them up quickly. The doctor looked at me and said, “There’s a high probability of brain damage if we do that, possibly leading to locked in syndrome.” I told him the slower the better, as far as I was concerned.
#12
If a pregnant woman dies, the corpse can still give birth. the build-up of gas during decomposition can force the fetus out of the body postmortem, a phenomenon known as "coffin birth."
JB 3 months ago
I'm going to take your gross fact and give a sweet and sad one in it's place: a friend I used to play with in band class died in a car accident when she was nine months pregnant. They wrapped the baby in her arms when they buried them together.
Adrian 3 months ago
If the woman has started to decay, the fetus will be long dead and there would be no point.
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Jon Lee 3 months ago
A programme in the UK called History Cold Case featured this. A woman from Roman times was found in a burial with 3 foetus skeletons, one in her arms, one between her legs and one in her abdomen. They worked out that she was pregnant with triplets. They surmised that the first was born but died and she died trying to deliver the second one, which was later a coffin birth. The third remaining undelivered.
#13
Alzheimer's starts working in your body decades before you start to show symptoms. By the time you know you have it, it's already been too late.
#14
Parrots express their love for you by regurgitating food for you like they would for a mate that was stuck nesting or for a young baby. Every pet owner that has ever been truly loved by a parrot has been intentionally barfed on...we just don't talk about it...
#15
Okay, but you'll regret it.
Most morgue workers are women, the reason...is exactly what you think it is.
#16
We are most likely past the point of no return with climate change and every year will get hotter and hotter as more permafrost melts releasing millenia old greenhouse gasses and more and more forests burn releasing the carbon they had captured in their lifetime.
We are in "silver bullet" territory.
#17
Prions cannot be k**led by sterilization. If we had a suspected case of CJD or another prion disease, we always had to use disposable tools. -former death industry worker.
Inori 3 months ago
Operating theatre nurse here in Australia. If we do brain surgery on someone with or suspected with CJD, we take those (very expensive) instruments out of circulation and put a label on it so that only this patient can use this set of instruments from now on. If they died, the instruments get disposed of.
#18
There's a disease called CTE, but it can only be diagnosed after you're already dead via autopsy. CTE or Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, is a degenerative brain disease that can be triggered by mass amounts of head trauma, like reoccurring concussions, brain damage, or traumatic brain injuries. Your brains ventricles slowly grows as both the white and grey matter of your brain degenerates, causing severe personality changes, among other severe symptoms.
#19
Your perception of yourself and who you are is never fact. You will always be perceived differently even by loved ones. Nobody actually knows who you are exactly.
#20
Turkey vultures bury themselves in carrion. Their heads are bald so they can slide in there more effectively. They projectile vomit gastric juices as strong as battery acid up to 10 feet to deter predators.
#21
Tarantula hawk wasps have a unique breeding method that caused Darwin to have a crisis of faith and question the existence of a benevolent god! They inject a tarantula with a paralytic and drag it off to their burrow where they proceed to lay their eggs inside of the still alive tarantula. When the little parasites are born they proceed to eat the still living tarantula from the inside out, making sure to avoid any vitals until finally the tarantula mercifully dies and they burst out of the husk.
#22
If you want something truly horrifying look up Japans Unit 731 and the experiments conducted there it ran from 1940 to 1945. Once you read/see images you won’t be able to unsee it.
#23
People with epilepsy were still being institutionalised into mental health hospitals still into the 90s.
And in the UK the first AIDS patients were in isolated wards with staff wearing full haematology equipment and just observed while they slowly died.
Nils Skirnir 3 months ago
The latter because there wasn’t much that could be done aside from palliative care. And yes they did get pain meds and IV
#24
Over fifty percent of the internet’s usage is by automated bot accounts. Dead internet theory is no longer a theory.
Kimberley McMillan 3 months ago
the other 50% is me looking up horrifying facts on bored panda
#25
The guy that invented chiropractic was told by a ghost that cracking spines cures diseases. Now we have colleges for it. 😱
RiceRiceBaby 929 3 months ago
I would never go to a chiropractor. I don't trust this practice. One wrong move....
#26
There is a condition called Cotards Syndrome, where you just think you’re dead or don’t exist. People who have it sometimes stop eating because they believe they’re dead.
KazzaHazza 3 months ago
I wonder if I can call in work with this and get away with it lit? Sorry, boss, can’t work this week, I’m dead.
#27
The smell of fresh cut grass is actually a distress signal to alert others plants of potential danger. So everytime you enjoy the smell of cut grass, you’re enjoying the sweet smell of suffering. Also, the thought of a living creature with no ability to run away having a panic pheromone is kinda fed up. Just “suffer in silence bitxh”
#28
During the rescue of survivors of the USS Indianapolis, one of the rescuers said that when he went to pick up a survivor his skin separated from the bone, and from then on he said he lifted them up by the life jacket. Because after 3-4 days soaking in salt water, skin starts to dissolve.
Shark Lady 3 months ago
A lot of the survivors were eaten by Oceanic White Tip sharks. The sharks will swim around underneath you and as you get tired and sink a little bit they attack you.
#30
Prion diseases exist.
mro_running:
Should’ve kept at as “read in comments.” I decided to google it and wish I hadn’t.
canceriandog:
Prion diseases occur when proteins normally in the body misfold and trigger a cascade of misfolding proteins which result in illness. We don’t know why this happens and there is no way to predict it. There is no cure and all prion diseases are universally fatal.
Nathaniel He/Him Cis-Het 3 months ago
Mad cows disease is an example. Apparently cannibalism can make prion diseases more likely to occur.
#31
After I heard that digestion is actually super painful, but your brain tells itself to not feel it, I've never thought of stomach gurgles the same way.
#32
The US military is so effective, it can have a fully operational Burger King anywhere on the planet within 48 hours. Imagine how fast they can do something that really matters.
#33
Without any warning at any moment anyone of us could have a brain aneurysm and possibly die within the hour if untreated.
Samantha H 3 months ago
I had a Brain Aneurysm (I had a severe Migraine and went to my Dr about it) It was terrifying, however I had life saving Surgery for which I will always be extremely grateful to the Surgeon and his amazing team for this.
#34
Pineapple can dissolve human flesh.
Yrral Spavit 3 months ago
The bit of tingling you feel eating fresh pineapple is it eating you back
#35
I saw recently that there's no control group for measuring the amount of microplastics in humans so that's kinda horrifying.
#36
There's a species of fungus that literally turns ants into zombies.
Ophiocordyceps unilateralis infects ants, takes over their nervous systems, and controls their bodies to climb vegetation before the fungus erupts from their heads to spread spores.
Shark Lady 3 months ago
Healthy ants will transport infected ones far away from their colony to control any outbreaks
#37
1st Dynasty Pharaohs had their retainers ritually k**led and buried with them when they died. We know this because many of their burial sites have mass graves filled with people in their 20s and 30s.
#38
Horrifying Fact: 4 million soldiers died non-combat deaths during WW2, worldwide.
Michael Largey 3 months ago (edited)
Two-thirds of soldier deaths in the American Civil War were from disease.
#39
At one point in your childhood your parents picked you up, put you down then never picked you up again. That always makes me sad, cause I really love being carried by mom.
Saltypepper 3 months ago
Well of course that became the point you became to big to be pick up anymore
#40
Did you know... Most of our parks around in England , are built on top of plague pits.
#41
If you remove a leech from your skin before they finish feeding, they will regurgitate blood back into you with a potential of transmitting parasites! 🪱 Keep them on until they’ve had their fill.
#42
There are about 100,000 human bodies buried under Washington Square Park in New York City.
When the park was being escalated, they found out the land leased to the city to build it on had once been a potter's field. Since the city had no away to identify the bodies buried there, and due to the logistics and expenses of moving a hundred thousand bodies, they opted to simply leave the bodies interred and build the park over them.
#44
We're closer to 2050 than to 2000.
#45
In the 1600s, people were buried alive so often that safety coffins were invented — complete with bells, air tubes, and flags.
And this is where the phrase “save/d by the bell” came from.
#46
We probably don’t have the materials to get to where we are today again.
The easy to obtain coal, oil and metals that got us to today have been largely depleted to get us to today.
To extract what’s left, it’d take considerable resources even for our modern society.
If we mess this up, there’s no getting back to this point.
#47
Nobody will remember you or your life or your memories in 200 years. Its All Inside your Head. And it will die with you.
#48
Whales never really die of natural causes. One day they just don’t have the strength to surface and drown.
#49
Basically, our bodies constantly vibrate when we move, causing pain in about every joint there is. Our nervous system is designed to totally ignore those micropains. Unfortunately, elderly people experience increasingly more of such pains due to deterioration of the body. Imagine if all of us could feel all of this pain 24/7.
Ace 3 months ago (edited)
Shows a deep lack of understanding of pain. It's not actually 'pain' unless or until the brain perceives it as such. In some people, and potentially more as they age, signals from joints and tissues may be incorrectly interpreted in the brain, leading to an increased sensation of pain, sometimes with no detectable cause, as with conditions like fibromyalgia.
#50
Cults continue to exist and nations all over the globe don't seem to care until there's a reason they should.
Chris the Bobcat 3 months ago
There is one Cult that's good. They preach Love, worship at the Sonic Temple and Sell Sanctuary.
#51
The last e**cution by guillotine was in 1977.
#52
The stomach contains a layer of mucus around it, protecting itself from self digestion.
#53
As babies we are typically born with all the teeth we’re gonna have.
#54
You walk past 34 m**derers in your lifetime without even knowing.
Ellinor she/they/elle 3 months ago
Well the 2 boys at my school that wanted to tase someone (they specified that they were looking for any girl) and succeeded, unknowingly tasing a girl that had a metal spine and paralyzed her for life are definitely on my lists of suspects as potential Mrderers.
#55
Once known as a creepy pasta internet story about a video called “Daisy’s Destruction”, is unfortunately real, it does exist and the creator is in a prison in the Philippines. Google for Peter Scully. Hope he suffers until he dies.
#56
Scaphism. Look it up. Or don't, if you prefer to sleep easy.
Also, people were slowly roasted alive inside a brass bull in the ancient Middle East. I won't go into detail but it was bad.
#57
You thought having 4 wisdom teeth was bad? You can have up to 16 although it's super rare.
8 is more common.
#58
More money is spent on Halloween costumes by Americans than would be required for resource production and logistics to end world hunger.
#59
Human flesh tastes like pork, hence why it is subsequently known as long pork. Also long pork has crazy amount of calories.
#60
If you died alone in your home, it could take as little as a few days for your body to begin decomposing enough that the smell seeps through walls and in some cases, it’s the neighbors noticing the smell before anyone realizes you’re gone.
#62
We basically know nothing about the Ocean or Space. Humans have only explored aproximately 5-20% of the ocean, and we do not know how much of the universe is explored or how big the universe actually is outside the laws of physics we know from earth and what the human mind can comprehend...
#64
In ancient Rome, they used crushed mouse brains as toothpaste. 💀
There’s a parasite that can change your personality called Toxoplasma gondii- it’s from cat poop 😟
The smell of death is forever burned into you. 🥲
There’s an art piece made entirely from human blood. 😬
The worst of all… the Palestinian genocide starvation, the war in Sudan where thousands of children are dying of starvation, and the ongoing M23 conflict with attacks on Tutsis in the Congo.
Rhinocersauce 3 months ago
"The smell of death is forever burned into you" Girl, so is the smell of chocolate chip cookies or your mom's perfume. Sense memory isn't inherently dark.
#65
Because of how physics works there's a chance that a bubble of absolute vacuum growing at the speed of light exists somewhere in the universe, there's no way to detect it before it swallows us and no way to stop it.
Ian Webling 3 months ago
I find this confusing. If an absolute vacuum "swallows" anything, surely it is no longer an absolute vacuum?
#67
Your body relies heavily on vitamin C to maintain scar tissue. When you die of scurvy you literally pop apart at the seams.
Amanda the Panda 3 months ago (edited)
A simple Google search will explain what scurvy is, and the role of vitamin C in the human body. The above statement is ridiculous.
#68
Our bodies are a ship of Theseus. Over the course of seven years, every cell in our bodies dies and falls off or is excreted. At the same time, new cells replace the old ones as they die. Thus, every seven years we get an entirely new body, and the body you were born in is actually long gone.
JP Doyle 3 months ago
This is a semi-myth because not all cells have the same death/replacement cycle, and not all of the body is replaced in a 7 year cycle. Plus, the brain does not work this way. The majority of neurons are formed before birth, but a few, most notably in the hippocampus, take a few more years to mature. But once that happens the brain does not and can not regenerate new cells.
#69
Hamsters flip their cheek pouches out of their mouth to empty the contents. That sounds weird but they're literally turning their cheeks inside out.
#70
There are an estimated 1.4 billion insects on Earth for every human.
#71
Most laugh tracks were recorded in the 50s and 40s you're hearing dead people laughing.
Michael Largey 3 months ago
For some shows these days, no one of the living would find them laughable.
#72
That if you are too skinny sometimes you die by the force of being saved. Like being pulled from a burning car. Worst experience of an EMT I ever heard.
#73
The average American is more likely to get cancer than get married.
iseefractals 3 months ago
B******t. About 40 out of every 100 men and 39 out of every 100 women will be diagnosed with cancer at some point in their lives, while 90% of adults will enter into marriage. Whether or not that marriage ends in divorce or not is irrelevant to the claim.
#74
Here’s a few
1.The air in your house is probably more polluted than outside. You very likely have mold spores around your house that do more harm than outside.
2.Blow dryers in bathroom blow faces particles onto your hands. This is because when you poop, or even fart, the same is just fecal partials floating into your nose, and since they float around, they end up on and in the dryer.
3.Sometimes when it’s silent, your brain makes noises, which is why sometimes you hear things or even your name.
Ellinor she/they/elle 3 months ago
The second one only applies when toilets and bathroom are in the same room.
#75
There is a very likely impact of an asteroid thats the size of a football stadium to impact the moon in 2032.
General Anaesthesia 3 months ago
"Very likely" is currently defined as 4.3%, but chances could go up.
#76
In the months following the release of the show 13 Reasons Why, there was a massive spike in teenage s**cide that was likely caused by the show.
The statement "Technology severely damaged kids" is likely true, and the companies that produced this technology knew they were likely going to cause harm.
Upstaged75 3 months ago (edited)
Not true. There was a spike in INTERNET SEARCHES for $uicide. Not the actual act of them.
#77
Google where / what “vanilla” essence is extracted from…
ohnositsrose:
I shared this fact with my students one year and "beaver booty juice" was often giggled at the entire school year afterwards. 🤣🤣 No regrets!
Margaret Shannon 3 months ago
Untrue. Artificial vanilla flavoring is made from vanillin, and vanillin is extracted from wood pulp. Beavers produce castoreum, a compound that shares some characteristics with vanillin, none of which is flavor.
#79
If your brain realizes you have eye balls the brain will k**l them off.
Rhinocersauce 3 months ago
What a dumb way to reference the immune system's ability to recognize self. So many posts in here paint biological facts as dark. THEY'RE NOT!!!
#80
Pigs are caged and lowered into gas chambers to “stun” them. the high levels of carbon dioxide burns them from the inside out, and you can hear them screaming from outside the slaughterhouses.
Helen Rohrlach 3 months ago
I hate commenting on untruths like this because you get screamed at but I going to have to. Any slaughter method is not going to be pretty but "burning from the inside out" is complete b******t. No slaughter method is going to damage the product. It's also a better way then hitting them on the head with a hammer.
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What do you think ?
Caffeinated Ape 3 months ago
Some of these were truly horrifying, a lot of them were just gross, and the rest were either poorly explained or outright false.
Uncle Panda 3 months ago
My BS meter blew up within a few minutes. Lists like this are useless and possibly harmful without a little fact checking. How good is BP's liability insurance these days?
Melanie Linehan 3 months ago
Read, "Dorcas Good: The Diary of a Salem Witch. A 4 year old girl, imprisoned for witchcraft. Physically, and sexually abused, who continually banged her head against a stone wall. Years later released with psychological illness, and brain damage.
Caffeinated Ape 3 months ago
Some of these were truly horrifying, a lot of them were just gross, and the rest were either poorly explained or outright false.
Uncle Panda 3 months ago
My BS meter blew up within a few minutes. Lists like this are useless and possibly harmful without a little fact checking. How good is BP's liability insurance these days?
Melanie Linehan 3 months ago
Read, "Dorcas Good: The Diary of a Salem Witch. A 4 year old girl, imprisoned for witchcraft. Physically, and sexually abused, who continually banged her head against a stone wall. Years later released with psychological illness, and brain damage.
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