Don’t you know the “government” is spying on us all the time? When we’re asleep, the spies get so bored that they even count the spiders we swallow in our sleep. :p
I really don’t know how they’d know that but I think I read about it in this book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/410632.The_Book_of_General_Ignorance

P.S.: There’s a chance the number of the spiders may be 7, not 8. :D