Beacon Biosignals Partners with Project Sleep to Shorten the Path to Diagnosis for People with Idiopathic Hypersomnia and Narcolepsy

The partnership connects Beacon's AI-driven neurotechnology with the patient-led advocacy community, expanding access to diagnosis and bringing patient voices directly into clinical research

BOSTON, Oct. 19, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Beacon Biosignals today announced a partnership with Project Sleep, the patient-led nonprofit organization working to raise awareness of sleep health, sleep equity, and sleep disorders. The partnership brings together Beacon’s AI-driven neurotechnology platform and Project Sleep’s national community of patients, advocates, and researchers to reach people living with idiopathic hypersomnia and narcolepsy earlier in their diagnostic journeys.

People with idiopathic hypersomnia (IH) wait an average of 8 to 11 years for a diagnosis, and people with narcolepsy type 1 (NT1) wait 4 to 11 years (Zhang, 2025). During that time, patients are often misdiagnosed with major depressive disorder (MDD) or another psychiatric condition, or the picture is clouded by a diagnosis of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). These diagnostic delays can have a severely detrimental impact on patients' education, employment, and quality of life.

Beacon develops at-home diagnostics and clinical trial technology designed to target that gap directly. Through this partnership, the two organizations will identify undiagnosed patients, support people already diagnosed with better treatment pathways, and shorten the time between a first symptom and a clinical answer.

“Improving patients’ lives is central to Beacon’s mission,” says Jacob Donoghue, MD, PhD, and CEO of Beacon Biosignals. “Project Sleep has spent more than a decade building trust in this community and amplifying patient voices. Working alongside them enables us to use our technology to find and treat people with disorders of hypersomnia sooner.”

With Project Sleep, Beacon will run patient focus groups, giving the company structured input from patients and caregivers on the testing experience, and informing Beacon’s national home sleep testing network. That network supports enrollment in clinical research, where Project Sleep plays a central role by connecting its community to sleep disorder studies from both industry and academic sponsors.

“Our community has always been ready to participate in research and to help solve the diagnostic delay that so many of us lived through,” adds Julie Flygare, JD, President and CEO of Project Sleep. “What has been missing is a way to relay those insights to the people building diagnostic tools and novel therapeutics. This partnership creates that link, and it treats patients as contributors rather than subjects.”

Founded in 2013 by Julie Flygare, who was diagnosed with narcolepsy at age 24, Project Sleep is one of the few sleep organizations led by someone living with the condition it serves. Its programs include the Sleep Helpline, a free national helpline for people facing sleep issues; Rising Voices, which has trained more than 190 patient advocates across 21 countries; and the Jack and Julie Narcolepsy Scholarship, the first national scholarship program for students with narcolepsy and idiopathic hypersomnia.

Beacon and Project Sleep will begin joint work immediately, with Beacon participating in Project Sleep's 7th annual Sleep Advocacy Forum on October 26, 2026, in Washington, D.C. Learn more about Beacon Biosignals at www.beacon.bio.

About Beacon Biosignals
Beacon Biosignals is transforming precision medicine for the brain. Our FDA-cleared, at-home Waveband EEG and cardiopulmonary devices deliver gold-standard sleep diagnostics in patients' natural environments. The Beacon Platform applies AI/ML to stratify patients and generate clinically validated endpoints for interventional clinical trials, and tracks disease progression of neurodegenerative, neuropsychiatric, and primary sleep disorders in longitudinal and open label studies. We partner with leading pharmaceutical, biotechnology companies, and health systems across CNS disease in service of building the world’s largest library of clinical and physiology data supporting scientific discovery and patient care.

About Project Sleep
Project Sleep is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to raising awareness about sleep health, sleep equity, and sleep disorders. Founded in 2013, the organization educates and empowers individuals through events, campaigns, and programs that bring people together to talk about sleep as a pillar of health. Project Sleep holds a four-star rating from Charity Navigator and a Platinum Seal of Transparency from Candid, and is a member of the National Organization for Rare Disorders. Learn more at project-sleep.com.

Media Contact
Beacon Biosignals
Isabella Lazzareschi, Director of Marketing
isabella.lazzareschi@beacon.bio