Could these two weird breathing issues be related and if so, what might the problem be?

Two things happen to me frequently enough to take notice of, and I don’t know the cause of either. Yes I could just go to the doctor but I’d rather not, and neither are serious enough (or it doesn’t seem that way anyhow) for me to really make the push and find out what the root issue is, or if these things are common, or whatever.

1. I can’t sleep on my back. When I do, for longer than a half hour I’d say, my breathing becomes very restricted. My lungs feel tight and heavy. I can’t breathe in deeply. It is painful. So….I never ever sleep on my back, so I avoid the problem, but when I do accidentally it still happens. It was at its worst when I was about 15. Sometimes it actually impacted my day.

2. Occasionally, lets say, once a week on average, I go to take a normal breath and have a sharp pain in my chest. Not so sharp it’s really painful but more so it makes me panic because I can’t breathe in any farther. I exhale, which doesn’t hurt, but when I breathe in again it’s still there. Once or twice it has gotten to the point I could only take very shallow short breaths but it has never lasted more than about a minute total. Like I said its a sharp pain in the middle of my chest.

So, do you have any idea why these things might happen?