Sleeping well is important for your health, but it is not easy for everyone. Tracking your sleep patterns is a good start and you can do this with the help of the new Sleep app for Apple Watch. This app helps you maintain a regular routine so you can achieve your sleep goals.
Wearing your Apple Watch at night can monitor your heart rate and the accelerometer in the smart watch detects the subtlest movements of your breathing and thus sees when you are awake or asleep.
How the Apple Watch Sleep app works
Since watchOS 7 you can use the Sleep app on the Apple Watch. By wearing the watch at night, your heart rate can be monitored and the accelerometer in the Apple Watch detects subtle movements of your breathing. Based on this data, the watchOS knows when you are awake or asleep. In addition, it is also recorded when you get up, use the Watch or your iPhone.
All data is processed and written in the iOS Health app. In the morning you can view your sleep analysis and see how long you slept and how often you woke up.
enable watchOS sleep function
Have you never activated the sleep function? Then you must first activate it via the steps below:
- Open the Apple Watch app on your iPhone
- Navigate to My Watch ▸ Sleep
- Tap ‘Configure Sleep in Health app
- Enable the option
Now read the information and tap ‘Next’ to set your sleep pattern according to the options below:
- Sleep goal: Hours and minutes per night that you want to sleep
- Schedule: Set bedtime and wake-up time according to a schedule per day (several possible)
- Bedtime: Moment of the day when you want to go to sleep
- To get up: Time you want to wake up
- Alarm clock options: Possibility to set an alarm for getting up, not mandatory
Use the Apple Watch Sleep app
Once you have set up the sleep function, you can use it according to the schedule or you can start the analysis manually. Once you have followed the steps above, the Sleep app will be activated automatically. You can adjust this afterwards via the Apple Watch app ▸ My Watch ▸ Sleep ▸ Track sleep with the Apple Watch.
Set Apple Watch sleep schedule
Thanks to the sleep schedule, you can automatically activate sleep tracking every day. You can add schedules via the Health app on your iPhone.
- Open Health
- Navigate to the ‘Data’ tab
- Tap ‘Sleep’
- Scroll down and open ‘Full schedule and options’
You can then view your current schedule and add new ones for other days. For example, you can add a schedule for the weekend with different times and/or without an alarm clock.
Once a schedule is active, the Apple Watch will automatically activate sleep tracking when you wear it to bed. When you get up, the recording of your night’s sleep is automatically switched off.
Alarm clock options
When using a schedule you can also activate an alarm clock to be woken up. Since watchOS 7 and iOS 14, you can choose from pleasant sounds such as early birds and morning light.
Do you wear the Apple Watch to bed? Then the alarm clock will be played on the Apple Watch. Is it on silent? Then you only feel the Apple Watch vibrate and the sounds become not played. Handy if you have to get up and you don’t want to wake your partner.
Good to know: via the Sleep app on the Apple Watch you can manually switch on or change the alarm clock just before you go to sleep.
Manually activate sleep function
Don’t want to use schedules? Then you can also manually enable the sleep function. To do this, activate the control panel on the Apple Watch and tap the Focus icon (usually a moon symbol) and then choose ‘Sleep’ (bed symbol). The sleep function is immediately activated and your activity is monitored. When you wake up again, you can turn off sleep tracking in the same way.
Sleep and battery charging notifications
In addition to recording your night’s sleep, the sleep function also helps you go to sleep on time. For example, you can get a reminder to go to bed, which you can adjust via Health ▸ Data ▸ Sleep ▸ Full schedule and options ▸ Options ▸ Sleep reminders.
Other important notifications include charging reminders, which you can enable via the iPhone Apple Watch app ▸ My Watch ▸ Sleep. If it is almost time for bed and the battery level is lower than 30 percent, you will receive a signal to charge your Watch.
Naturally, the sleep function will shorten the battery life. If you always charged your Apple Watch at night, you now have to do this at different times. Fortunately, you can be notified of your Apple Watch’s battery level via your iPhone. In the morning, the good morning screen shows the battery level of your Apple Watch and you will receive a notification on your iPhone as soon as the battery of your Apple Watch is full.
Use Relax on an Apple Watch
With the ‘Relax’ function for iPhone and Apple Watch it is possible to extend sleep mode. The purpose of this option is to relax before you go to sleep. You can decide when ‘relax’ is activated, for example an hour before going to sleep.
Once Relax is activated, Do Not Disturb will be enabled on your iPhone and Apple Watch, the screens will dim and only important information will be shown on your iPhone’s Lock screen. You can also only unlock your iPhone by tapping ‘Lock’.
You can adjust your relaxation via Health ▸ Data ▸ Sleep ▸ Full schedule and options ▸ Options ▸ Additional details. Then choose a time under ‘Relax’ and determine the relaxation assignments.
Use relaxation commands
To relax as best as possible, you can set relaxation commands, these are Siri commands that help you go to sleep. This way you can play soothing music, dim lights or listen to a podcast. You can also set commands to quickly complete tasks without having to scroll through your entire iPhone, such as setting your alarm or turning off the lights.
Via Health ▸ Data ▸ Sleep ▸ Full schedule and options ▸ Options ▸ scroll to ‘Additional details’ and tap relaxation commands to customize them.
Do you want to use Siri commands during Relax? Then you have to set this up via the Siri Shortcuts app ▸ Tap ‘My Shortcuts’ twice ▸ Sleep mode. Tap the plus button to create a new one or move already created shortcuts via ‘All commands’.
View sleep results in Health
Of course, recording your sleep is interesting, but the results are just as important. You can find this in the Health app ▸ Data ▸ Sleep. The graphs show when you went to sleep and what time you got up. By tapping a bar you can see the precise times and thanks to the highlights you can see your sleep pattern at a glance.
The dark color indicates that you were asleep, while the light color indicates that you were awake, but in bed. If the bar is interrupted, this means that you have stood up.
Breaths per minute
Since watchOS 8, your breaths per minute have also been recorded. The accelerometer in the smart watch detects the subtlest movements of your breathing and thus sees when you are awake or asleep. The microphone also helps determine the breathing frequency. You can check how many breaths you take per minute via Health for iPhone.
Sleep stages: dive deeper into your sleep
Since watchOS 9, not only your sleep is measured, the different sleep phases are also analyzed. For example, in the Sleep app for Apple Watch and the Health app for iPhone you can immediately see the duration of your core sleep, but also REM sleep and deep sleep. You can also check how long you have been awake.
Detailed sleep data and comparison
Since iOS 16, you can view and compare your heart rate and respiratory rate data in the Health app on iPhone. To do this, go to Health app ▸ Data ▸ Sleep ▸ tap ‘Show more data for Sleep’. You can then view the sleep phases and amounts per day and compare them. You can also see how those values change over the course of the night.
Pulse temperature
Do you have an Apple Watch Ultra, Series 8 or newer? Then you can also measure your wrist temperature during the night. These Apple Watch models contain a temperature sensor to measure your body temperature. In the sleep data you will then find the difference in the wrist temperature and how it has changed over the course of the nights.
Apple Watch has sleep apnea detection
Starting with watchOS 11, you can use an Apple Watch Ultra 2, series 9, or newer to find out if you have sleep apnea. By wearing the watch while you sleep, the Apple Watch can check whether you have symptoms of sleep apnea.
To detect sleep apnea, Apple Watch uses the accelerometer to track small movements on the wrist associated with interruptions in normal breathing patterns. The registrations are saved in the Health app ▸ Data ▸ Breathing ▸ breathing disorders, compared using artificial intelligence.
If the Apple Watch detects increased breathing disturbances over several nights, the Health app will send an alert for possible sleep apnea. A report about sleep apnea is no diagnosis of sleep apnea. Only a doctor or healthcare team can make that diagnosis. If you receive a report of sleep apnea, it is best to discuss this with your doctor at your next appointment.
Conclusion: Apple Watch Sleep app
The sleep function is quite complicated, as all settings are spread across different apps. In one app you set notifications, the other schedules and before you have found the settings for your sleep goal or relax, you are a few taps further.
The use of schedules is useful, but it also provides less freedom. Fortunately, since watchOS 9, the information that the Sleep app collects and adds to the Health app has been expanded and you can easily dive deeper into sleep analysis. If you want more freedom and better insight into your sleeping pattern, you can also use alternatives such as the Withings Sleep Monitor.