I've noticed that sometimes when I'm still concious and just about to fall asleep I would exhale and fail to inhale again, and at that point my shoulder (the side I'm not sleeping on) would jerk suddenly and I would start breathing again. I'm 18,  5'7", a tad overweight, wide chest/shoulders, wide-ish neck.

I asked my doc about this and she said it was due to my asthma.  

Oh and one more thing, so far I didn't do anything about because I'd rely on my brain to send signals to inhale again during sleep or to send a message if something is going wrong. Could it be possible that the brain does not send any signal....and conceqencially die in sleep? I've read that the brain, or most parts of it, is just as active when we're awake as it it when we sleep.

thanks in advance.