President & CEO of Project Sleep, Julie Flygare, JD spoke at AASM’s Sleep Medicine Trends conference in La Jolla, California on February 24, 2024.
Flygare presented “When Dreams Leave the Night” and also moderated the patient panel “Where Physicians Make Mistakes.” This panel featured sleep advocates Miranda Chappel-Farley, Lauryn Craine, and Ray Merrell, who are all living with various sleep disorders.
“It’s so amazing that the conference organizers asked to feature patient voices at their meeting,” said Flygare. “This is a huge sign that the momentum toward patient collaboration is happening.”
Sleep Medicine Trends is an educational event hosted by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. Sleep medicine clinicians and subject matter experts gather to explore new strategies for patient care while learning about the emerging technologies and innovations that are making an impact on clinical sleep medicine.
Julie Flygare, JD, serves as President & CEO of Project Sleep. Flygare is an internationally recognized patient-perspective leader, an accomplished advocate, and the award-winning author of Wide Awake and Dreaming: A Memoir of Narcolepsy. On March 22, 2022, she delivered the TEDx Talk, “What Can You Learn from a Professional Dreamer?” Flygare received her B.A. from Brown University in 2005 and her J.D. from Boston College Law School in 2009, focusing on health law, policy and rare disease drug development.
Miranda Chappel-Farley, PhD is an outdoor recreation enthusiast and sleep neuroscientist. Having been diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea at the age of 21, she now dedicates herself to raising awareness and reducing stigma as both a patient and scientist. As a Project Sleep Rising Voices speaker, she shares her personal journey—from symptom onset as an adolescent to diagnosis and treatment in college—with the public and draws upon these experiences to inform her current research pursuits.
Lauryn Craine lives in and is a native to Chicago, Illinois. She graduated with her Bachelors in English and is working on her Masters in Library Science. Currently, she works part-time as a Public Service Assistant at a library. Lauryn also writes for fun and as a secondary job. Her writing mainly focuses on advocacy, specifically for idiopathic hypersomnia and other sleep disorders. Outside of advocacy, Lauryn loves to play video games, read a variety of books, and collect plushies to stash in her room.
Ray Merrell is a patient representative actively participating in clinical studies since 2016 of Rapid Eye Movement Sleep Behavior Disorder (RBD). Ray was diagnosed with RBD and Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) in June 2011. Ray was one of 2 Patient Representative on the AASM RBD Task Force updating the 2010 RBD Clinical Guidelines published in late 2022. He serves on the Education Committee of the North American Prodromal Synucleinopathy (NAPS) Consortium. Ray is a career Environmental Health & Safety professional retiring in 2023 after 40 years working across multiple industries.
