New research shows octopuses have horrifying nightmares
Updated | By Stacey & J Sbu
This video will spook you...
Think about that moment where you wake up in a sweat, crippled with fear about the terrifying nightmare you just had.
New research shares that just like humans, octopuses get spooked in their dreams too.
WATCH: Beautiful once in a lifetime "Kraken" squid lands on SA shores
Scientists have captured an octopus exhibiting strange behaviours in a laboratory in New York that can only be explained as it having nightmares.
Watch this bizarre moment transpire below:
This octopus, called Costello, was filmed 24 hours a day in a laboratory at The Rockefeller University in New York over the course of a month.
On four occasions, the animal awoke "abruptly" before engaging "in antipredator and predatory behaviours", changing colour, and flailing his arms around erratically, researchers said in a paper published on the website bioRxiv.
Watch more: Disturbingly big octopus washes up on the beach
After much deliberation, the behaviour was concluded to be in temporary distress, which scientists said could suggest he was responding to a bad dream.
"It was really bizarre, because it looked like he was in pain; it looked like he might have been suffering, for a moment. And then he just got up like nothing had happened, and he resumed his day as normal," said Eric Angel Ramos, one of the researchers to Live Science.
Watch more: Incredible footage of "ghost" octopus seen lurking in the ocean
Just like us humans, there may be a monster under the (sea)bed.
Stay tuned for more, we will bring you the latest at East Coast Radio.
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Image courtesy of canva
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