I have been using a CPAP for several years now... best thing that ever happened to me also. I have a new machine and it's 98% silent. I was having 58+ episodes per night and wild dreams then wake up only to be dead tired all day. The testing is just an EKG machine not some tourture contraption. The night I tested I slept great, after all it was the first time in a long time I was breathing all night! It took me a long time to adjust to it.... a good 20 minutes or so! My wife loves being able to sleep without my loud snoring and gasping waking her up. A CPAP doesn't cure anything (medical problems) but without one everything becomes much worse. As far as it being better than dying, I don't know, I never died before!