Sleeping man awoken by bear intruder

If you set up a camera to film yourself sleeping prepare yourself for the possibility of looking like a goose.

Fortunately for us, the Californian man identified only as Villhellm decided to share his panicky reaction to having a bear break into his house.

Villhelm was sleeping on the couch about 2am when a black bear pushed open the unlocked door, waking him.

The sound of the door immediately wakes Villhelm up, and he is seen looking up into the darkness.

Eventually the bear knocks the door wide open and it stares straight at Villhelm, its eyes glowing in the video thanks to its night vision setting.

Villhelm immediately jumps to his feet and tries to shoo away the animal by waving his arms, smacking his hands on the couch and turning on the lights.

"When it's 2 o'clock in the morning and a bear opens the door the last thing you think about is getting the gun and ammo before he eats you," he wrote on Reddit.

The frightening encounter took place in 2012 but he has only just uploaded the video to YouTube.