Weird intermittent quick inhale/exhale at random intervals

Hi @ljmontgo, and welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect. Those of us on Connect are not medical professionals so we can’t diagnose conditions. However it is a place to learn from shared experiences and insights.
It looks like you’re not alone in having these intermittent breaths. I did a little research online as well and found a few links to sites with people asking the same question...but not really answers.

Like you, the patients are concerned about the breathing, but it appears it’s not a serious medical issue and more of an annoyance. However, looking through them I did notice that the onset of the symptom usually, but not in all cases, began some period after an event, such as surgery, periods of stress, impact to the chest, a cold, influenza, asthma, sleep apnea...the list goes on...
Do you remember anything taking place before your symptoms began?
For your peace of mind, it might be worth a trip to your physician to make sure there’s no discernible cause.

Here’s one of the links I found, though the entries are quite dated. See if these stories sound familiar. Hopefully we’ll get some community members responding who may have had similar experiences as yours.
https://www.medhelp.org/posts/Respiratory-Disorders/Strange-Involuntary-Breath/show/14555

Hi everyone,
I am in the hospital and can't seem to really get any answers. All I am getting is according to your test results, you are fine. I to have burst of involuntary exhale, at first it was just embarrassing because I didn't even realize I was doing it until others asked me about it. I have been doing this for about a year now and it's daily, quite often but was only annoying and embarrassing at first. It seems to be getting worse and I can't find any answers. I have Myasthenia Gravis and it is now to the point that it causes diaphragm weakness, which means it's triggering Myasthenia Gravis. I usually can just put ice on my chest and rest to get strength back to my diaphragm. A little nervous but it works so ok. Now I am in the hospital being treated for congestion with severe consistent coughing which I thought was the normal sinus/seasonal allergies draining and turning into bronchitis but they ran test and did X-rays and can't seem to diagnose me with anything. I am still here because of the unknown everything is normal has triggered my MG again causing diaphragm weakness. I was stuffed with steroids and back to back breathing treatments and finally got the coughing under control and the drainage reduced as well as the wheezing reduced. I just had my mestinon and this unexplained outburst of quick, deep, involuntary forced exhale has my upper chest through my back in pain and back to weakness in my diaphragm and I can't seem to make it stop. I don't even know what specialist doctor to ask because no one seems to know. Is there anything you do to help it stop. I actually tried the clinching of my cell phone and it did not seem work for me. I have been able to slow it down some with closing my eyes and going to my happy place and practicing relaxation techniques I learned to help when I go into a MG Crises, but it doesn't last. I need this to stop because with Myasthenia Gravis, it is more then just annoying for me. It can get dangerous. Any suggestions are welcomed. Thanks.