Narcolepsy Featured on BBC Podcast

Rising Voices Speaker Shares His Story on ‘Room 5’

Tre Burge, a 2022 Rising Voices graduate, recently shared his narcolepsy story with the BBC’s ‘Room 5’ podcast, which explores life-changing diagnoses and the roads leading to them.

Tre’s powerful narrative starts with him lying in bed at age nine, unable to move as a shadowy figure approached him. These terrifying and unexplained experiences continued throughout his childhood, and a chance encounter led to his narcolepsy diagnosis at age 18. Tre is now a trained speaker with Project Sleep’s Rising Voices leadership program, which led to his interview with Helena Merriman, host of the ‘Room 5’ podcast.

Dr. Anne Marie Morse, DO contributed her clinical perspective as a neurologist specializing in sleep medicine, rounding out the discussion with keen insight into narcolepsy symptoms and diagnostic challenges.

They told me, ‘These things aren’t normal. You have a sleep disorder.’

I was so relieved.”

—Tre Burge

Tre Burge is a proud Iowa native and paraprofessional working with elementary school students with disabilities. He was diagnosed with type 1 narcolepsy with cataplexy at age 18, and advocates for narcolepsy awareness through content creation, local outreach, and his clothing brand, SLEpPY. As a trained speaker with Rising Voices, Tre shares his unique perspective and lifts up others’ voices in hopes of reaching the right ears and inspiring action.

Hear more from Tre on our Narcolepsy at Work Narcolepsy Nerd Alert episode and find him on social media: @hefallsasleepshop

Dr. Anne Marie Morse is a board-certified and fellowship-trained pediatric neurologist. Her clinical interests include sleep-wake disorders in neurologic disease, narcolepsy and hypersomnia disorders and neuroimmunology. Her research interests include sleep-wake disorders in neurologic disease, hypersomnia disorders and sleep-wake disorder phenotyping. Dr. Morse earned her degree in osteopathy from Rowan University. She completed her residency and her child neurology fellowship at the State University of New York, Downstate Medical Center. She completed another fellowship in sleep medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, Montefiore Medical Center. Dr. Morse is certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in neurology with special qualification in child neurology.

Dr. Morse is member of Project Sleep’s Expert Advisory Board and frequent contributor to our initiatives. Hear more of her insights on Narcolepsy Nerd Alert: New & Upcoming Narcolepsy Treatments and Pregnancy & Narcolepsy. Find Dr. Morse on social media: @dammgoodsleep