The Car Is Empty When the Conductor Finds Her — Again
“Grand Central, miss.”
Lauren Thomas jolts awake—same conductor, same gentle tap on her shoulder, same fog in her head. She thanks him, gathers her things, and steps onto the platform.
It’s Tuesday. Or Wednesday. The days blur when you sleep through most of them.
She’s been here before: asleep on trains, asleep in bathroom stalls between classes, asleep in backseats with a pillow and blanket she keeps in a “sleep kit.”
“My mom would read textbooks to me so I could study. My dad helped me type my school essays as I sleepily dictated what I wanted to say. They believed me when no one else did.”
Three Knee Surgeries by Seventeen
Lauren grew up a relentless and meticulous competitor, a basketball player and concert pianist who lived in motion.
By twelve, she’d already had her first knee surgery. By seventeen, she’d had three. Her dream of college basketball faded, but her drive didn’t.
In high school, she started fighting a different kind of opponent: a fatigue that made every morning feel like climbing a mountain in slow motion.
She napped in bathroom stalls, set alarms for eight-minute micro-rests, and built that sleep kit in her car.
“Everyone was tired at my prep school,” she says. “But this was different. I was running on empty.”
They Never Flinched
Mom read the chapters for her schoolwork before audiobooks were popular.
Dad learned to speed-type as she dictated.
They tag-teamed mornings to get her to school.
They set alarms for her 3 a.m. dose once she had an actual diagnosis.
Treatment meant stimulants by day and sodium oxybate—a controlled substance that improves nighttime sleep quality—by night. And a family still checking that 3 a.m. alarm to ensure she got her dose in.
But more than medication, it meant learning to trust again.
“I’d lost faith in doctors,” she says. “Then I met one who actually listened. It gave me hope again.”
From Bathroom Stalls to Capitol Hill
Reading Julie Flygare’s Wide Awake and Dreaming gave Lauren language for her own story. She reached out. Julie wrote back.
Soon, Lauren was helping plan World Narcolepsy Day, joining Project Sleep’s Board of Directors, and by 2024, being named Sleep Advocacy Champion.
“When I read Julie’s book, I realized I’d never even been taught what cataplexy was. Now I talk about it on panels, sometimes with my parents right next to me.”
Recently, she stood on Capitol Hill asking for a “home for sleep” within the CDC.
“There’s funding for epilepsy,” she said. “Why not sleep? Most med schools give it less than an hour.”
If Lauren could talk to her younger self, she’d say: “You know yourself better than anyone. Don’t let the world talk you out of that.”
Then she adds quietly, “There was a time I thought rest meant weakness. Now I see it for what it is…surrender that lets you heal.”
Proof
These days, Lauren doesn’t hide her naps anymore.
She speaks on panels, sometimes with her parents in the audience.
She pushes for CDC funding. She answers emails from people who are fourteen years into their own fog.
“For thousands living with narcolepsy, especially young women of color told they’re imagining things, Lauren’s story is more than inspiring. It’s proof.
Proof that you can trust yourself when the system doesn’t. Proof that fourteen years of being told you’re wrong doesn’t mean you are.
Proof that advocacy starts with one person refusing to disappear.
“My journey isn’t just about sleep,” she says. “It’s about determination and believing in yourself, no matter what happens.”
Her mother watches her daughter testify on Capitol Hill and thinks about all those mornings reading biology textbooks aloud, wondering if they’d ever find an answer.
Her father watches her advocate for sleep medicine funding and remembers learning to type fast enough to capture his daughter’s thoughts before exhaustion pulled her under again.
“We always knew she was extraordinary,” her mother says. “We just needed the world to catch up.”
And it is catching up—one diagnosis, one policy change, one teenager in a bathroom stall finding Lauren’s story and thinking: Maybe I’m not crazy either.
And when the train conductor sees her now, he just nods.
She’s awake.
Lauren Thomas serves on the Board of Directors for Project Sleep and was named a 2024 Sleep Advocacy Champion. She still has the voicemail from January 6, 2019, saved on her phone.
Dr. Suite, thank you for sharing Lauren Thomas’s powerful story. It shines a critical light on the long, frustrating “fog” of misdiagnosis that so many face, underscoring the vital importance of medical professionals who truly listen to their patients.
Dr. Suite, your clear and empathetic writing perfectly captures the inspiring courage of Lauren Thomas. Her journey from diagnosis to advocacy offers crucial hope and makes this an incredibly powerful and necessary contribution to health awareness.
Dr. Suite: Wow, thank you for elevating Lauren’s powerful journey and relaying her story so beautifully here. This brought tears to my eyes, Lauren is an amazing woman and advocate, I’m honored to walk this journey with her as we push for progress to raise awareness and help reduce delays to diagnosis.
Hi Julie, thank you for your wonderful feedback and for your inspirational work! The world needs more extraordinary leaders like you and Lauren. Thanks again!
This post right here is is so inspiring, It reminds me of my favorite quote ever “The unreasonable man” by George Bernard Shaw. What is Lauren Thomas didn’t keep fighting? What if she just listened to those doctors who told her nothing was wrong with her? No she knew. She knew something was off and she needed professional help, and would not stop till she got the help she needed.
This story is bigger than sleep epilepsy, it’s a story of preserving, a story of resiliency, but most importantly a story of BELIEVING IN ONES SELF EVEN WHEN THE WORDL TRIES TO TELL YOU NO.
Some of my favorite quotes:
It’s about determination and believing in yourself, no matter what happens.” & We always knew she was extraordinary,” her mother says. “We just needed the world to catch up.” (This last quote is money). Thank you Dr.Suite for blessing us with this powerful message
Hi Wone, thank you for your powerful feedback. I really resonate with your emphasis on Lauren’s unwavering belief. That’s the story inside the story. Thanks again for your stellar insights!!
This post right here is so inspiring, It reminds me of my favorite quote ever “The unreasonable man” by George Bernard Shaw. What is Lauren Thomas didn’t keep fighting? What if she just listened to those doctors who told her nothing was wrong with her? No she knew. She knew something was off and she needed professional help, and would not stop till she got the help she needed.
This story is bigger than sleep epilepsy, it’s a story of preserving, a story of resiliency, but most importantly a story of BELIEVING IN ONES SELF EVEN WHEN THE WORDL TRIES TO TELL YOU NO.
Some of my favorite quotes:
It’s about determination and believing in yourself, no matter what happens.” & We always knew she was extraordinary,” her mother says. “We just needed the world to catch up.” (This last quote is money). Thank you Dr.Suite for blessing us with this powerful message
What stood out in the story to me was the teamwork of Lauren’s family and the voice of her childhood self returning… Her deep intuition of wholeness. Deep appreciation Lauren!