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Hey bud, I didn't read through all the responses, but I am a Registered Respiratory Therapist and I can tell you exactly what is happening and what you need to do.
You have what is called OSA (Obstructive Sleep Apnea). What is happening is your soft tissue relaxes when you sleep and your airway closes. When CO2 levels in your body rise, it tells your diaphragm to take a breath, so you have that loud snore/pop open sound. If you are over weight, the problem is more severe.
While your levels of CO2 rise, it puts strain on your heart. Your heart wants to pump fresh oxygenated blood throughout your body. Blood can only hold so many atoms. So if you have more CO2 than O2 in your blood, your heart has to work harder to compensate for your low O2 levels.
High Co2 is what is giving you headaches and I bet your are sleepy more often than not during the day. Every time your airways open up when you snore, it wakes you up slightly, so you will not get good rest.
CPAP stands for Continuous Positive Airway Pressure. What this device does is use Air pressure to Stent open your airways. The reason why you need a sleep study is because we need to determine what pressure is best to keep your airways open. Lets say I set your CPAP for a pressure of 8cmH2O, you would need to create a pressure greater than that to overcome the pressure of the airway stent. If you can only create a pressure of 5cmH20, then you will not be able to exhale and will have some problems.
I know that a CPAP isn't the most comfortable thing and I read earlier that you're worried about being dependent on this machine, but it is truly for you and your family's benefit. You will have better sleep, you will be more alert, less headaches, and overall happier. You will reach a point where you will question why you never got a sleep study done and used a CPAP to begin with.
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