Macalester Grad Develops App To Help Veterans With PTSD

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- A farm boy from Lonsdale, Minnesota is using tech to help military vets everywhere with PTSD:

Macalester College grad Tyler Skluzacek's "MyBivy" app recently took first place at a coding competition in Washington DC. It's designed to help veterans manage night terrors through a smartwatch:

Skluzacek says the app senses when a night terror is about to begin by tracking the person's movement and heart rate. When it identifies that particular pattern coming on, it gently buzzes the smartwatch, taking the person out of a night terror without waking them up.

Skluzacek got the idea after watching his dad, an Iraq war veteran, suffer from night terrors. He says since his dad has been using MyBivy, his night terrors have decreased from as many as 2-3 per night, to 1 or 2 per month.

Tyler Skluzacek's app is currently in a clinical trial with the North Carolina Department of Veterans Affairs. He'll continue to work on MyBivy in grad school, which he starts in a few weeks at the University of Chicago.