NightWare is an application on an Apple Watch® that helps people suffering from traumatic nightmares to get a more restful night's sleep. It is a wearable technology that learns your sleep patterns and customizes a treatment for each individual, interrupting nightmares so you can get an uninterrupted night's sleep.
The watch monitors heart rate while you sleep. A gyroscope and accelerometer, similar to fitness watches, monitor movement. The application has a formula that is customized to each individual.
Tracking biometric inputs during sleep; Nightmare = Stress
An intervention (smartwatch alert vibration) at nightmare stress threshold is designed to arouse but not awaken the wearer—preserving the night's rest
AI processing longitudinal data better predicts each new episode
The watch then learns the sleep pattern in the first few days of wearing the watch each night. The person doesn't wear the watch during the day—that is when it recharges.
After the learning period, usually less than 10 days, the watch senses the wearer's heart rate and movement. When it detects a potential nightmare, the watch will vibrate enough to interrupt the nightmare, without waking the wearer.
The application adapts to the individual. If it senses that it woke the person, it will vibrate less next time to avoid waking the wearer.
The watch app monitors the individual while sleeping. The app continuously collects heart rate, accelerometer, and gyroscope data and uses it to compute a stress threshold. If the stress threshold exceeds a learned threshold for the individual, the app intervenes by vibrating. The app starts with a low-intensity intervention. If that does not have the desired result, the app increases the intervention intensity. The goal is to arouse, but not awaken the individual. The watch app also sends the collected data to a secure cloud service to facilitate review by a healthcare professional.
The desktop app displays stress, intervention, and other data collected by the watch app. The desktop app enables an individual to review his or her data or a healthcare professional to review data for multiple users. The goal is to reduce stress levels and interventions over time to ensure restful sleep.
For now, NightWare is not available for sale. Clinical trials are underway. We hope NightWare will soon be available to help people with traumatic nightmares get a more restful night's sleep. Please sign up to receive updates.
Since the NightWare app provides a treatment—interrupting nightmares—it needs Federal Drug Administration (FDA) review. A clinical trial is needed to determine if the product works and ensure there are no health risks when using it. Once the FDA reviews the product, they will decide if it is cleared for sale as a medical device. The company will also share the results of the clinical trial with payors, like the Department of Veterans Affairs, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), and private insurance companies, in hopes of getting the product reimbursed.
To help people with traumatic nightmares to get a more restful night's sleep. Initially, we are focused on people with PTSD, often military veterans. We won't sleep 'til people with PTSD do.
NightWare is an application on an Apple Watch that helps people suffering from traumatic nightmares to get a more restful night's sleep. It is a wearable technology that learns your sleep patterns and customizes a treatment for each individual, interrupting nightmares so you can get an uninterrupted night's sleep. The company was founded in 2015 and is currently seeking FDA clearance for commercial sales as a medical device.
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The Observer ranks NightWare #3 in its list of the 20 Hottest Health Start-Ups in 'Flyover Tech' at the 37th Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference. For details, please see our media advisory (pdf, doc).
15Y veteran of Silicon Valley. Sales exec, built multiple start ups. Exits to NVIDIA, CA.
15Y medical device marketing. 5Y patient care at top US hospital (registered dietitian).
Board Certified Psychiatrist and Sleep Physician. Medical Director, Minnesota Regional Sleep Disorder Center, Hennepin County Medical Center. Assistant Professor of Neurology, University of Minnesota.
MIT graduate. Built Primordial from inception to successful exit to Polaris. Winner of 15 SBIR and DoD contracts. Holds 10 patents in advanced software algorithms.
Clinic Supervisor of Neurology and Neurosciences, MN Regional Sleep Disorders Center HCMC. President-Elect MN Sleep Society, Chair International Board of Registered Polysomnographic Technologists.
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