It's not imagination when it happened night after night for many years; when a real fear developed as a result of the phenomenon occurring on a regular basis.
It was so very real and so very scary, especially when it was impossible to determine who was the instigator.
It began suddenly as a young child. Occasionally, one foot or both feet sticking out of the end of a duvet (Doona) would be brushed against or grabbed. Then it was virtually every night ... and then it wouldn't happen for weeks or even years. Then mysteriously it began again, just as you were drifting off to sleep, a foot would be brished against or grabbed.
So now a real fear has developed when feet are outside of the protection of a quilt. A paranoia perhaps, thought the phenomenon was ever so real. And at one point, even with feet safely tucked inside a quilt, a exposed arm was grabbed in much the same way.
And the perpetrator was never human, because no-one else was ever in the room; or if they were they were sleeping soundly beside me away from my feet out of the end of the quilt. This was a definite hand grabbing or brushing against my feet ... something invisible or unseen making its mysterious presence known. And even now, with a year or two since the last occurrence, I live with the fear of my feet being extended outside of a quilt. On a final note, this phenomenon only happened at night, never by day ... a very strange occurrence.