Mum-of-four Caroline Griffin was snoozing peacefully when she felt a twitching under her duvet.
But if she thought it was her children playing a trick on her, that illusion was soon shattered when she felt a sharp pain on her chest! For she'd just been bitten on the breast by a 4ft snake!
Suddenly, what sounded like a comedy sketch turned to stark terror for the mum as she threw back the covers to reveal the brown and cream-coloured reptile.
And when she looked down at her chest, she saw that its fangs had left two angry puncture marks and an unsightly bruise.
Caroline, 49, even feared she might be seriously injured – or even that she might die – because she didn't know if the snake was poisonous.
She said: "The snake was lying on top of me when I opened my eyes in the morning.
"I was about to get up to get the kids ready to go to school when I threw the duvet back and saw it sitting on my chest.
"I thought the kids were playing some sort of trick on me, at first. Then I saw it move and I got the fright of my life.
"As soon as I started to scream, it bit me on the breast. It was quite sore.
"I thought I was going to die."
Caroline's kids took photographs of the snake on their mobile phones while she called the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals for help.
But the animal welfare charity's inspector turned back after a neighbour arrived to claim the snake. He scooped the snake up in a pillow case and took him home.
Fortunately, it was a non-poisonous Brown Belly California king snake called Hiss which had gone missing from its owner SIX MONTHS earlier.
Gareth Niven, 21, who lives on Caroline's street in Guardbridge, Fife, said he hadn't seen his pet reptile since it pushed its way out of its tank.
He said: "There was a derelict house between Caroline's house and ours and we think he may have been holed up in there. There were council workers round recently carrying out work in the property, so it's possible he could have been disturbed and made his way to Caroline's."
Caroline, who is mum to Laura, 24, Michael, 21, Emily, 16 and 13-year-old DJ, said she is still getting over the shock of finding Hiss on her chest.
She said: "It was the biggest fright of my life. I don't think I will be able to sleep in my own bed now for weeks."