MN Man’s FDA-Approved App Helps Stop Night Terrors For Vets

It started as a viral Kickstarter campaign launched by a Minnesota teenager whose Veteran dad suffered from night terrors.

Tyler Skluzacek [skloo ZAH check] took matters into his own hands and created an app in 2015.

Back Then

Tyler's father Patrick is an Iraq War veteran with PTSD. Night terrors were a regular occurrence. Tyler entered an annual coding contest called Hack DC with the goal of helping his father.

Tyler's team, "The Cure" (not the band), won the contest with their MyBivy app. "Bivy" is short for "bivouac", which is a place in the field where soldiers sleep. The app detects the onset of night terrors by monitoring heart rate and body movement. When physical benchmarks are reached, the app (installed on a smartwatch) 'nudges' the wearer out of deep sleep, and thus prevents or cuts short the night terror, while the wearer still remains asleep.

Five Years Later...

The app - now called NightWare - finally received FDA approval in 2020. Through trial-and-error, Tyler and Patrick perfected the app. Patrick calls it life-changing.

H/T: NPR

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