Night Terrors Lully

"If you’ve ever watched a child experiencing a night terror, you know how awful it is. The child is sobbing and frightened, yet can’t be roused from sleep. The parents stand by anxiously, unable to help. Night terrors affect millions of children but, at the time we started the Biodesign Innovation Fellowship, there were no effective solutions to address them. This is, in part, because the problem typically resolves on its own so pediatricians simply tell families to have patience. However, the issue can take years to go away, with parents and children left sleepless and suffering in the meantime. We knew there had to be a way to help these families.

We ended up developing a solution that’s safe, effective, and easy for parents to implement. Our system uses carefully timed, gentle vibrations to induce partial awakenings that help children transition to the next cycle of sleep and avoid night terrors. The response from parents has been really encouraging. One mom told us this story: 'Let me be the first to say I was skeptical. I have a wonderful, spirited three year-old who NEVER slept through the night. She would awaken three times a night screaming her head off, and she gave up naps long before her second birthday. We tried everything with no luck, and I hated that she was scared at night and exhausted. When our second child was born, I thought we'd never sleep again. But the Lully solution took just a few days to work and my girl was sleeping through the night. And she's rested. Not only that, she now occasionally wants to nap. It’s amazing!'

This kind of feedback keeps us motivated as we work to develop a portfolio of solutions for newborns to teenagers to help the entire family sleep better."