Imagine a solution to sleepless nights caused by nightmares. Apple has launched a solution to this and it is called NightWare.
NightWare is a prescription digital therapeutic system for the reduction of sleep disturbance related to Nightmare Disorder or nightmares from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It is the first and only FDA-cleared, prescription digital therapeutic that improves sleep in adults 22 and older with Nightmare Disorder or nightmares related to PTSD.
How It Works
NightWare evaluates a person’s stress index (level of sleep disturbance) using artificial intelligence and other cutting-edge, smart technology. It uses information from the Apple Watch heart rate sensor, accelerometer, and gyroscope to determine when someone is having a nightmare and this information is monitored in real time.
When a nightmare is detected, the system rapidly delivers short vibrations to interrupt nightmares without waking the patient. The vibrations on the wrist gradually increase until the user is roused from the nightmare, but not from sleep. NightWare’s first-of-its-kind technology platform customizes the intensity and frequency of the vibrations based on the person’s specific needs at that moment.
The increased use of NightWare generates better learnings as the more you use NightWare, the smarter it gets. NightWare is constantly capturing data and adapting to the patient’s evolving sleep patterns, thereby creating a customized intervention based on the ongoing accumulation of data from the user.
History of NightWare
Tyler Skluzacek, while studying computer science at Macalester College in Minnesota, created the NightWare prototype. According to him, he was inspired to work on a solution for his father who developed PTSD during his two-decade military career. The concept was based on the way a service dog gently nudges its owner to help stop a nightmare.
Not long after he created the prototype, Skluzacek met Grady Hannah, who is now NightWare’s CEO. Hannah has spent the last seven years bringing NightWare to market, and credits Apple’s ecosystem as crucial to that process. “We had to get an independent security audit and submit it for FDA clearance,” says Hannah. “And because NightWare runs on iPhone and Apple Watch, I think the quality and security of those products were key factors in getting that clearance. It’s important to us that NightWare is functioning optimally for so many people who have given so much of themselves.”
Currently, NightWare is prescribed to 400 patients in the US, 98 percent of whom are active-duty military or veterans
