“Sleep, Dreams and PTSD: Opening a Backdoor”

(D) “So, you got all that information off your Apple Watch?” (P) “Yes, Sir. And I’ve been recording my sleep activity for several months now.” (D) “Do you think there is a possibility we can track your blackouts by looking at your sleep data from the night before?” (P) “What do you mean?” (D) “That with a poor night’s sleep there is a high probability that you will have a blackout the next day.” (P) “I never thought about my blackouts having anything to do with my sleep habits.” (D) “I’m guessing that there is a one-to-one correlation between a lack of good sleep, and blackouts the next day. Should we start tracking this?” (P) “Okay, I mean my watch gives me a lot of data so why not?’ (D) “If we can prove this, then I think we have stumbled on something very important and very useful in your treatment.” With this doctor-patient exchange I came across the idea/ conception/insight that it was possible to predict when my patient was going to experience a blackout, some of which were very dangerous for her. At first this appeared to be a wild and crazy idea.