A man recently found himself struggling to breathe during his sleep and became determined to get to the bottom of his problem.

In order to see the disruption, he decided to set up a camera near his bed to find out what was happening during the night - but what he saw was astonishing.

He had been having trouble sleeping

Looking back at the footage, the man soon found there was a very simple explanation for his poor sleep.

It turned out that his cat had been coming into his room and sitting on his face while he was out like a light.

Looking back at the footage the man discovered what was disturbing his sleep (Photo: Twitter @stluis_htx)

Photos of the unnamed man's findings were shared on Twitter via the account @stluis_htx.

His post quickly went viral, with over 1.4 million likes and over 360,000 retweets.

Thousands of people also commented on the post sharing their thoughts.

The man's cat had been sitting on his face preventing him from breathing (Photo: Twitter @stluis_htx)

Many were concerned that the pet was trying to suffocate its owner.

One person said: “Your cat is trying to murder you.”

Another wrote: “You have a sleep catnea.”

A third added: “That cat seems sweet but believe me, he's trying to kill you slowly."

The man was surprised to learn of his cat's unusual behaviour (Photo: Twitter @stluis_htx)

Others began sharing the weird things their animals had done to them while they were asleep.

Someone else posted: "I've woken up with my cat nose to nose just staring me dead in the eyes in the middle of the night.”

A different user replied: “My cat used to sleep on my face too. I would wake up gasping for air because his fat a** was literally smothering me.”

#Eve Digital