A new smartwatch app has just hit Kickstarter that's designed to help veterans overcome PTSD and night terrors.
The app has been designed by college student Tyler J. Skluzacek whose father fought in Iraq. Since returning, Patrick Skluzacek suffers night terrors, a symptom of PTSD, which affects some 3.8 million veterans. That led Tyler to creating app, named myBivy, at a local hackathon.
Essential reading: More world-saving wearable ideas
MyBivy – derived from the military term bivouac, which is a safe place to sleep – tracks the wearer and learns the physical precursors to a night terror attack. If the change in heart rate and body movements is detected, it will gently bring the wearer out of the deep sleep state.
It's currently designed for Pebble, but the team want to open it up to the Apple Watch and Android Wear.
"After a couple weeks of tracking the soldier we can find the exact symptoms of the onset of the panic attack and try to use the watch to take them out of the deep sleep but keep them asleep," Tyler Skluzacek told Wtop News.
The partner app will log details of the wearer's sleep history, which can be downloaded and sent to the veteran's doctor – if they wish.
It's a fantastic example of personal wearable data helping overcome a serious and life-changing condition. It's collecting money on Kickstarter and has already smashed its modest target.
How we test
James is the co-founder of Wareable, and he has been a technology journalist for 15 years.
He started his career at Future Publishing, James became the features editor of T3 Magazine and T3.com and was a regular contributor to TechRadar – before leaving Future Publishing to found Wareable in 2014.
James has been at the helm of Wareable since 2014 and has become one of the leading experts in wearable technologies globally. He has reviewed, tested, and covered pretty much every wearable on the market, and is passionate about the evolving industry, and wearables helping people achieve healthier and happier lives.