I learned that I was not breathing well during my sleep from my wife. My changes in breathing disturbed her so much that one night she stayed up and observed. I stopped breathing 16 times in one hour.

I had already experienced times when I stop breathing or hold my breath while awake. This happened during an EEG test when i was supposed to sleep. Every time I relaxed enough to start to drift off, I would start gasping for air. I realized I was breathing consciously/voluntarily rather than subconsciously/involuntarily. It appears my problem was do to upper neck inflammation that was causing autonomic nervous system dysfunctions.

You can buy or some places rent pulse-ox alarms you connect to your finger tip. Of your Ox level drops, an alarm will wake you. The rental systems usually require a doctors script but they also have better recording features. You can download a night's sleep and pulse-ox recordings to your computer by USB.