Benedict Cumberbatch dreams in character.

Benedict Cumberbatch and Sophie Hunter

Benedict Cumberbatch and Sophie Hunter

The 'Doctor Strange' star has revealed he sometimes makes appearances in his own dreams as one of his characters and says they are usually without a main prop or naked.

He explained: "It's usually, like a lot of actors, nightmares after the event, rather than during. It's the way that brains work - it's incredible, isn't it? But you just get haunted by a moment, and suddenly you're back playing a character that you dropped months or years [ago], and then you're often onstage and often without a vital prop and sometimes without any clothes whatsoever and you can't remember your lines.

"You're looking at characters that are really familiar and the situation is half familiar, but suddenly you're in a real room and the dream takes real odd turns, I don't know. It's so funny in the way we get haunted by our work as actors, I know I'm not alone in that. The naked thing, or running out or just completely forgetting what you're saying is very fiercely real."

The 40-year-old actor - who has 16-month-old Christopher with his wife Sophie Hunter and is expecting a second child - has a huge fan following online but he insists he won't be getting a social media account any time soon as he "can't tweet to save his life".

He added to People magazine: "I can't get involved in social media because as they know, it'd be a disaster. I can't tweet to save my life. I'd go over my character limits and never make any sense.

"It would just consume me and I find that whole thing ultimately very toxic. I'd much rather spend my energy doing what brought me to their attention in the first place, which is my work."