Great news for some PTSD disorders

Tyler Skluzacek remembers his dad as a fun, outgoing man before he left to serve in Iraq. When Patrick Skluzacek came home in 2007, says his son, he had changed.

Patrick was being consumed by nightmares. At night his dreams took him back to Fallujah, where he had served in the U.S. Army as a convoy commander. He sweated profusely and thrashed around in his sleep, sometimes violently.

The nightmares were so vivid and so terrible that he feared closing his eyes. The only way he could get to sleep was with vodka and pills, he says.

Patrick's life began to unwind. His marriage fell apart. "[I] pretty much lost everything," he says, fighting back tears. "My house, everything, my job, everything went."

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According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, 52% of combat soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder have nightmares fairly often, compared to 3% of the general public.

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[Tyler] put together a team to program a smartwatch to detect the onset of night terrors based on the wearer's heart rate and movement.

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But the tricky part was to provide "just enough stimulus [in the form of a gentle vibration] to pull them out of the deep REM cycle and allow the sleep to continue unaffected," Tyler says.

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With constant fine-tuning as his dad slept in the next room, Tyler eventually perfected the algorithm.

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After years of suffering, Patrick finally found relief. He was able to get his life back. He has remarried and he's working as a mechanic again. There are the occasional bad dreams, but they no longer rule his life.

More people will soon be able to benefit from Tyler's invention. An investor purchased the rights to the app and started a company called NightWare.

Last month, the Food and Drug Administration approved the app, which works with an Apple Watch, to treat PTSD-related nightmare disorders. It will soon be available by prescription through the VA.

  NPR

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.