Breathing is strange

I was wondering what would be causing me to breath strange. It's hard to explain, but sometimes my body just pushes a breath out. It's like I breath out all of the sudden and my heart feels like it speeds up for a minute and my body feels a little panicked. I also sometimes feel like I "don't need to breath" or have to force myself to think about breathing. Sometimes I feel like I have Apnea, but my husband says he never notices me snoaring or anything. I notice my breathing problem is worse after drinking alcohol. I sometimes when I lay down suddenly breath in real deep just as I'm dosing off and it wakes me up.
My questions are:
Is this heart related - or could the heart cause weird breathing patterns?
or
Could this be a symptom of lung disease?
I am 35 years old, female, smoked for 16 years but have since quit (for almost 6 months).
Thanks for your help. I'm really scared that soon I may just stop breathing.

[National Jewish]

While this is certainly a scary situation, it is extremely unlikely that you will just stop breathing.  Your first step is to visit your doctor, in the very near future, for your heart and lungs to be examined so that the cause of your strange breathing can be found.  One possibility is sleep apnea.  With sleep apnea breathing stops temporarily during sleep.  Another possibility is anxiety related to panic disorder.  With panic disorder the heartbeat may speed up and the breathing can be strange.

[karizmaflip]

IT COULD BE REALATED TO BOTH TALK TO YOUR DOCTOR.