Your Apple Watch has been able to monitor your sleep for some time, but in watchOS 26 Apple has added the easy Sleep Score function – here’s how it works!
What is Sleep Score?
With Sleep Score, Apple has added a new way to see at a glance how well you slept last night. Your Sleep Score shows this as a number between 0 and 100. So you could see it as a percentage. The closer you get to your (sleep) goals, the higher your Sleep Score will be. If you have watchOS 26 installed, you will automatically see your sleep score when you open the sleep app on your Apple Watch.
The feature requires at least one night’s worth of data, so your very first sleep score won’t be shown until the next day. If your Sleep Score is rated as ‘high’, you should feel reasonably rested. If you tap the ‘i’ you will see a more detailed overview of your score. The example below shows 39/50 points for sleep duration, 30/30 for bedtime and 18/20 for interruptions. You can also see the Sleep Score in the Health app on your iPhone.
That’s how it works
If you look a little further, you will see that Sleep Score is very personal. The feature compares each night’s data with the data the Health app has collected from you so far. This way you get a score that is representative of you. The feature specifically looks at what time you went to bed, how long you actually slept, how many times you woke up, and how long you spent in each sleep stage. All you have to do is wear your Apple Watch while you sleep.
Apple says it collaborated with the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, the National Sleep Foundation and the World Sleep Society to develop Sleep Score. The company is also said to have used 5 million nights of sleep data it collected as part of the Apple Heart & Movement Study.
These Apple Watch models support Sleep Score
No additional sensors are required for the Sleep Score. It is supported on Apple Watches running watchOS 26. This includes the Apple Watch Series 6 and later, the Apple Watch SE 2 and later, and all Apple Watch Ultra models. The condition is, of course, that the battery life of your Apple Watch is long enough to get through the night. You also need an iPhone 11 or newer with iOS 26. If you have been using Apple’s sleep registration for some time, you can probably already see your Sleep Score.
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