How to Track Your Sleep With an Apple Watch

The Apple Watch has a built-in sleep tracker, however it may be arduous to seek out. Right here’s the best way to entry it, the best way to set it up in order that it correctly information how a lot sleep you’re getting, and the best way to perceive the outcomes. 

Does my Apple Watch assist sleep monitoring? 

Sleep monitoring was launched with WatchOS version 7 (launched in 2020). That model of WatchOS works on watches from Collection 3 and newer, paired with an iPhone 6S or newer, with iOS 14 and newer. 

In different phrases: The oldest gadgets that may work are a 2015 cellphone, a 2017 watch, and 2020 releases of the software program that run on them. So long as your Apple Watch isn’t really historical, it ought to assist this. (In case you’re seeking to purchase a brand new Apple Watch, although, the Series 11 is the newest.)

The place to seek out the Apple Watch Sleep app

You’ll must navigate to 4 completely different locations to entry the entire sleep-related options of your Watch and iPhone. (Three of them are on the cellphone.)

On the Apple Watch

Credit score: Beth Skwarecki/Apple

In your Watch, search for a mattress icon with a greenish-blue background. (Professional tip: You’ll be able to change this screen to use the names of apps, alphabetized, moderately than having to play conceal and search with little icons.) Whenever you open the Sleep app, scroll right down to examine (or set) your sleep schedule. That is all that you must do with this app for setup; the Apple Watch will monitor your sleep robotically even in the event you by no means open this app once more.

Within the Well being app

Credit score: Beth Skwarecki/Apple

In your iPhone, the sleep features are a part of the Well being app. (There is no such thing as a devoted Sleep app.) Open the Well being app, faucet Browse, then faucet Sleep. From right here, you’ll be able to view information on current nights of sleep, and set your sleep schedule for the longer term.

On the backside of this display screen, you’ll be able to edit your subsequent sleep schedule or your full sleep schedule (the one which repeats every day and weekly). This tells your cellphone once you’re planning on sleeping. Faucet Full Schedule & Choices to set that schedule, and scroll right down to the underside for the following step.

Within the Watch app

Credit score: Beth Skwarecki/Apple

To verify your watch will monitor your sleep, that you must configure your Watch-specific sleep settings within the Watch app. The best technique to entry this from the Well being app (faucet Full Schedule & Choices from the Sleep display screen), and on the backside of that display screen, there’s a hyperlink to Handle Sleep within the Apple Watch App. Faucet that, and also you’ll go straight to these Watch settings. 

Activate “Observe Sleep with Apple Watch” to allow monitoring, and activate “Charging Reminders” so the Watch can notify you to cost it earlier than bedtime in case your battery is low within the night.

Within the Settings app

We’re not fairly finished. Within the Settings app, you’ll be able to arrange your Sleep Focus. To get to it, you’ll be able to go into the Well being app, then Sleep and Full Schedule & Choices, as above. It’s also possible to get to it from the main target modes within the Settings app. The sleep focus is elective for monitoring, but it surely provides you entry to specialized home screens and notification settings that may activate at bedtime.

How one can arrange your Apple Watch to report your sleep

You’ll be able to totally discover all of the sleep-related options by way of the apps I discussed above, however right here is the brief model. Do these items and also you’ll have your Watch recording your sleep tonight:

1. Arrange a Sleep schedule (Well being app > Sleep > Full Schedule & Choices).

2. Faucet Handle Sleep With Apple Watch on the backside of that display screen. (This sends you to the Watch app.)

3. Activate Track Sleep with Apple Watch.

4. Put on your Apple Watch to mattress. It must be unlocked, and in case you have a passcode, you’ll need wrist detection turned on. 

The Apple Watch will use the sleep schedule (or Sleep Focus, which you’ll be able to activate manually) to know once you may be sleeping. Throughout this time, it makes use of your actions and your cellphone use, to detect whether or not you’re sleeping, and to estimate if you find yourself in every stage of sleep. 

How one can learn your outcomes from the Apple Watch sleep app

To see your sleep in your watch, scroll down from the primary watch face (utilizing the digital crown, or swipe up together with your finger) and you may see a card in your Sensible Stack with the earlier night time’s sleep. Faucet this to open the Sleep app, which can present you your sleep phases, time asleep, final 14 days’ sleep, and your sleep schedule settings.

Credit score: Beth Skwarecki

It’s also possible to see this info anytime you go to the Sleep app in your watch, or the Sleep part of the Well being app in your cellphone. (In case you get up earlier than your sleep schedule ends, you might want to attend till your scheduled sleep time is completed earlier than the info turns into accessible.) 

Your sleep information, on both the watch or cellphone, will present your sleep phases represented with deep sleep on the backside in purple, “core” (that is, light) sleep within the center in blue, REM greater up in lighter blue, and awake in orange on the prime. (That stated, no wearable goes to be fully correct in terms of sleep phases, so don’t learn an excessive amount of into these.)

The app may even present you your coronary heart charge through the night time, your sleep pattern (mine says “You slept a median of seven hr 22 min over the past 7 days”), and month-to-month and yearly highlights exhibiting whether or not you’re getting roughly sleep than up to now.