Hi Andrea, I'm so sorry to hear this. Does she get hairballs? If so she could just be trying to cough one up. My Pearl will do this sometimes at night too and I just give her some hairball medicine and then she's fine. I've also noticed that some of my cats will do this after they drink. Hopefully it's nothing serious. I'd just keep an eye on her or you could just call your vets office and tell them what's going on and see what they say. Good luck.