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…

Read More

#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.…

Read More

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…

Read More

“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…

Read More

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…

Read More

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…

Read More

Living One-Third of My Life with Narcolepsy

Twelve years ago today, I was diagnosed with a classic case of type 1 narcolepsy with cataplexy, just four days after my 24th birthday. So as of today, four days after my 36th birthday, I’ve now spent one-third of my life officially as a “person with narcolepsy” (not counting the years of symptoms before diagnosis). For fun today,…

Read More

Share! Narcolepsy with Cataplexy PSA Video with Ode to Joy Movie

Friends: I’m SO beyond thrilled to share the news with you today that Project Sleep proudly partnered with IFC Films and Ode to Joy Director, Jason Winer, to create a PSA to raise awareness about narcolepsy with cataplexy. Please watch and share with friends!   Teamwork makes the dream work I am so grateful to Jason…

Read More