Posted on 12/09/2020 10:41:27 AM PST by Eddie01
A college student with a desire to alleviate his father's suffering has invented an app that helps people with PTSD stop having night terrors.
Tyler Skluzacek's father, Patrick, a US Army Commander with PTSD, was suffering from debilitating night terrors.
Patrick served in Iraq in 2007 and at night his dreams took him back to Fallujah. He could only fall asleep with the help of alcohol and pills -- and his life slowly fell apart.
"[I] pretty much lost everything," he told NPR, fighting back tears. "My house, everything, my job, everything went."
Tyler was a senior at Macalester College when he entered a "Hackathon" to figure out a way to help his dad.
During the event, he put together a team to program a smartwatch to detect the onset of night terrors based on the wearer's heart rate and movement.
The app creates enough stimulus via a vibration to "pull them out of the deep REM cycle and allow the sleep to continue unaffected."
Tyler tested the watch on his father, and through trial and error, he eventually perfected the algorithm.
"It was night and day when I put that watch on and it started working," Patrick said. The vibrations, he says, were "little miracles."
Now, more people will soon be able to benefit from Tyler's invention.
very cool
That’s amazing.
Cured sleep-PTSD with a simple program on a watch.
Described, it’s so amazingly obvious - and took a kid to think of it first.
Son helping father. Beautiful story.
It’s nice to read some good news. 🙂
Absolutely!
Which Fallujah ? There's one in Michigan too, probably scarier than the one in Iraq.
iPhone screen getting hard to see...
like my faith, i know the Father through the Son, and this young man has helped many fine men.
What a great story.
Necessity, the mother of invention!
Great work young man!
He said one time they woke to him screaming about the German tanks coming, cowering on top of an armoire.
Great invention and I hope it can make a difference for many vets.
Sort of like a wife kicking the hubby when he starts to snore.
Oh shyt. Pharma ain’t gonna like this one bit. The FDA should be there any second to ban the device and arrest the son for practicing medicine without a license.-
It makes you wonder why all the simple remedies are are found by people not in that field. I guess those people are looking for solutions and not how can they charge an arm and a leg for a complicated solution.
Way cool.
Sort of like a wife kicking the hubby when he starts to snore.
I usually just elbow mine.....and if that doesnt work then I loudly say “I”m sorry” lol
“Cured sleep-PTSD with a simple program on a watch.”
Does it work when you are awake too?
News flash.
It ain’t just hubbies that snore folks.
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