A Moment I’ll Cherish Forever: Meeting my Representative Adam Schiff

On Tuesday, Feb. 10th, I had the opportunity to meet my Representative, Congressman Adam Schiff and thank him in-person for championing the sleep community priorities in Congress for the past three years. I was in Washington, DC for Project Sleep and the Sleep Research Society’s February Hill Day on Monday, Feb. 9th. See our event…

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#SleepIn2020 Deadline TODAY for T-Shirts

Project Sleep’s SIXTH annual “Sleep In” will take place on March 13-15, 2020, but today, Feb. 18th is the deadline to order your official shirts. Please support our shirt fundraiser here.        Get shirts for the whole fam! Honestly, I get compliments and questions about my Sleep In t-shirts every time I wear one.…

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Exciting News! Giving a TEDx Talk in San Diego

SO beyond excited to share this news: I’ll speak at TEDxSDSU on March 22, 2020 in San Diego, CA! Giving a TEDx talk has been a major life goal for about 7 years now, when i put it in my art journal as one of my major aspirations. And I’ve applied to many over the…

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You’re Invited! Join Me for Project Sleep’s New Year’s Celebration

Tune in this Saturday, Dec. 28th, 2019 at 12:00 noon ET for a very special  New Year’s Facebook LIVE—celebrating your amazing 2019 and looking ahead with a sneak peek of 2020! On behalf of Project Sleep’s leadership, I will broadcast live from Los Angeles to Project Sleep’s Facebook page this Saturday, Dec. 28th at 12noon ET. You…

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“I will change how I treat my patients because of your talk.”

Last month, I gave one of my favorite presentations at the 10th Biennial Pediatric Sleep Medicine Conference hosted by my alma mater, Brown University. My “TED-style talk” had two key messages: Prescribing social support to people with narcolepsy, Partnering with patients, patient leaders and organizations to develop patient-centered research toward recognizing and addressing stigma. I’d spent…

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Celebrating 10 years of the REM Runner Blog!

Ten years ago today, I came out as a person with narcolepsy. On November 10, 2009, I started this REM Runner blog, disclosing on the internet for the first time that: “Hi! I’m Julie Flygare, a person living with narcolepsy with cataplexy.”  From my original About Me:  “Narcolepsy has changed my life for better and…

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Listen Now: Social Experience of Narcolepsy on Sleep Junkies Podcast

“I remember keeping [my narcolepsy] private and always feeling like it was this thing sitting at the back of my throat that I wanted to share, but just stopping myself, remembering ‘you’ll get a bad reaction, this person won’t understand.’”   – Julie Flygare, Sleep Junkies podcast  “So you went from something being a secret to the…

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Taking a “Sick Day” with Narcolepsy

When working in traditional offices, I struggled with “sick days.” I didn’t often get colds or flus. I just dealt with my narcolepsy with cataplexy, which was fairly stable and “well-managed” by the time I took these jobs. Yet narcolepsy was still with me every day, to varying degrees — from minor annoyance to extreme…

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