By Paul Reynolds, Vice-President, Narcolepsy Network

As usual this year, Narcolepsy Network participated in SLEEP, the annual U.S. conference of sleep professionals – which is a kind of summit meeting for the sleep community. Held in mid-June, the 2026 event drew more than 5,000 people and more than 100 exhibitors to Baltimore’s Convention Center.

Over the course of three days at the event, Narcolepsy Network talked to scores of sleep doctors, nurses, researchers and technicians and held constructive meetings with our pharmaceutical partners and fellow patient advocacy organizations. A bonus benefit to the 2026 event was the opportunity to introduce our friends and partners to Liz Burgess, the new Executive Director of Narcolepsy Network, to help her as she begins work on directing our programs in 2026 and beyond.  

Along the way, our contingent – comprising Liz, our president Keith Harper and me –  also gleaned useful news and insights for people who have narcolepsy and idiopathic hypersomnia and those who support them.

Here’s the first of our three top takeaways from the event.

Timely Sleep Care Is Still an Issue for Many Patients  

In conversations at SLEEP, concerns about access went beyond insurance coverage alone. The conference also highlighted the continuing challenges of those with sleep disorders in finding professional help quickly and locally.

On the positive side, we were delighted at our booth – which was part of a special patient advocacy area of SLEEP – to be able to chat with many young professionals who were early in their careers, treating sleep patients or administering sleep tests for them. Encouragingly, plenty of these pros were headed for relatively rural areas – Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and a small city in Alabama, to cite just two examples – where the shortages of medical caregivers can be especially acute.  

Still, asked about their patient load and how long people must typically wait before they can see them, many of the professionals we talked with answered in ways that underlined the gap between the needs of sleep patients and the resources available to them.

Even when the capacity was ample at their own practices, some doctors said limitations in supporting services could introduce delays. Notably, they said, their treatment plans are sometimes delayed because of lengthy waits at the sleep labs that administer the tests required in order to confirm diagnoses for narcolepsy and IH.

Beyond anecdotal information about access challenges – at the conference and from some participants in our online support groups – some of the studies unveiled at SLEEP 2026 presented data that demonstrated the impact of a shortage of sleep professionals in the U.S. was not.

For example, a study by a number of researchers – including Dr. Lois Krahn, a distinguished sleep specialist and a long-time medical friend to Narcolepsy Network – found the two top challenges in being evaluated and diagnosed with narcolepsy were related to medical staffing. Four in ten patients reported delays in finding a provider who was familiar with sleep disorders. One in four said they experienced delays or limited availability of appointments for sleep tests, studies, or appointments.

We’ll continue to track all the trends we saw at SLEEP throughout the year, and will be creating resources to help people with narcolepsy and IH navigate them successfully.