Their sleep is obviously problematic, but they're able to fall asleep (just not for long).

Have little sympathy for them as an actual insomniac where I simply can't fall asleep no matter how tired. Hours and hours of laying there, wishing sleep would take me away.

Maybe I get an hour, two is a bonus. Body breaks down, can't eat, can't sleep, barely functional.

Upper Airway Resistance Syndrome is extremely common, and extremely underdisgnosed both - most sleep studies only screen for sleep apnea, and most physicians aren't aware of the different ways in which UARS presents, even though it's fundamentally the same disorder, and often as or more severe.

Basically, if you have any difficulties breathing through your nose, recessed or very narrow jaws, tend to breathe through your mouth at night, and your sleep is disturbed, you're likely to have either OSA or UARS, the former more common in men, obese people, and the elderly, while UARS predominates in women and younger, thinner people.

The difference is basically in how your body reacts to the airway collapse- whether you keep sleeping until oxygen desaturation happens, or wakes up to re-establish airway patency. Long-term, the hypoxia does more damage, but in terms of immediate symptoms, the worse fragmentation is worse.

> First thing every morning and last thing every night, I go outside and take in the sights, the sounds, the light.

I have the suspicion that many of these approaches to insomnia are invented by people who've never been through, and based solely on what they imagine not being able to sleep is like.

actual title:

"I spent four decades not sleeping a wink – until a doctor took my insomnia seriously"

Highly unlikely that someone has not slept at all in 40 yers.

they would be dead or at the very minimum have extreme psychological dysfunction