© CatersPaul Goodrum said: "I thought I just had a runny nose but when I felt my face it was blood"
The stray had clawed his face near his eye and bitten his nose.
Mr Goodrum, 26, said: "I thought I just had a runny nose but when I felt my face it was blood.
"I pushed the animal away and put on the light to see a very large white-grey cat. I chased it out of my bedroom and examined the damage on my face.
"The cat had scratched my eyelid and my cheek and forehead. There were also bite marks on either side of my nose. It was very frightening."
Mr Goodrum shares the flat with his girlfriend and their own two cats. He said he believed the stray got in through the cat flap.
"My girlfriend was staying with her parents and I was on my own," he said.
"Our two cats were terrified and were hiding under the units in the kitchen to keep out of its way."
Mr Goodrum said he chased the cat out his flat and told his neighbours what had happened.
He said: "I was worried young children in the area would be in danger after what happened to me.
"Just think of the horrific state this would have left a baby or young child in."
Mr Goodrum, an electrician, said he took the next day off work and went to his doctor for treatment.
"I had a tetanus injection and was lucky my eye had only been caught on the lid," he said.
Lise Goen, a cat and dog behaviourist said it was a strange incident.
"Strays getting into homes through cat flaps is very common, but I have not heard of a cat attacking someone who was asleep," she said.
"Cats can be bold and territorial and it could be that the cat felt threatened by the man suddenly moving when he was asleep.
"It could have felt it was challenged by the other cats who lived in the flat."
Miss Goen said pet owners should take action to ensure strays do not use cat flaps to get into homes.
"You can get cat flaps with powerful magnets and fit a magnet on the cat's collar, which allows it to open," she said
sleeping. I believe that the cat attacked because of rem (rapid eye movement).
The weird thing was that I was dreaming about Star Trek - I dreamed that I was fighting Mr. Sulu with a sword (if you are a trekkie you'll remember that episode) and he lunged and stuck his epee in my eye. I woke up and felt my eye and when I looked at the hand that had touched my eye - there was blood. Freaked me out, but then I saw the cat staring at me and realized what was happening..