Ammon News - A Virginia doctor woke up to a nightmare she initially thought was a dream: A bat was inside her mouth.

Dr. Krista Edelman, a Richmond gastroenterologist, said she was asleep when she dreamed that a small mouse was trying to get into her mouth. She reached up to investigate and grabbed something soft, hairy and cool.

“I thought I was still dreaming,” Edelman said in her Instagram video. Then she realized it wasn't a mouse, as reported by local Virginia outlets WWBT and WTVR.

“It was like, my gosh, this is real life,” she told WWBT.

Edelman said the bat appeared to be trying to burrow between her lips and into her mouth. She pulled it out and threw it across the room before waking her husband and telling him a bat had been trying to get into her mouth.

The bizarre encounter prompted Edelman to share a warning about rabies and what people should do after possible contact with a bat.

In her Instagram video, Edelman described the post as “a bat PSA,” urging people to take possible bat exposures seriously.

USA TODAY has reached out to Edelman for additional comments about her experience and the warning she shared about potential bat exposures.