Kate Beckinsale revealed she was left terrified after experiencing a seemingly bizarre incident while sleeping. The star, who feared she’d suffered a stroke in her sleep, was momentarily unable to move and experienced a series of odd hallucinations.

It turns out she was merely going through an episode of sleep paralysis, as she later came to learn.

She told Total Film magazine: “I had one crazy episode of sleep paralysis. I had actual auditory hallucination.

I had just had lunch with David Walliams, who is a very good friend of mine, and he’d gone off and I went for a nap, because I was exhausted. And I heard him in my hotel room talking to someone and I thought, ‘Oh no, they’ve come in…’

I went to get up and I couldn’t move at all. I thought, ‘Oh my God, I’ve actually had a stroke. I’ve died…’

Then I got up and he wasn’t in the room so I called a doctor friend of mine – he’s a neurologist – and said, ‘What the f**k just happened to me?’”

The doctor then explained the situation, which effectively put her at ease.

She continued: “He goes, ‘Oh it’s quite a common thing, it’s what they used to think was a succubus or whatever – you can be in a very particular stage of REM sleep and your brain has woken up but your body hasn’t yet. So you can’t move and people will have visual or auditory hallucinations.

I said, ‘This isn’t going to happen again, is it?’ Luckily, it hasn’t. But it was quite a moment, I have to tell you.”

And Kate, 43, hopes to be a “really interesting” older lady as the years go by: “What will I become? I’m hoping a really interesting old lady. One that has dyed hair and lots of little animals in her pockets.”