Apple Watch Can Now Detect Sleep Apnea
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Sleep apnea can be serious and have significant health implications beyond simply disrupting your sleep. Here's how you can track and detect it using just your Apple Watch.
Sleep apnea is a chronic condition that makes it difficult to breathe at night. Those who suffer from it often have trouble breathing, and may even stop breathing for a while.
Without proper airflow, you may feel tired and sleepy during the day, despite theoretically getting enough sleep. It can also lead to more serious side effects, such as an increased risk of heart disease and more.
Typically, people have to participate in a sleep study to diagnose sleep apnea. These are usually done in a lab, and there are some tests that can be ordered at home.
However, this is a prohibitively expensive and often costly step that leaves many undiagnosed and at risk. Starting with watchOS 11, the new Apple Watch models make this more accessible.
Apple Watch vs. Sleep Studies
Home or office sleep studies track breathing rate, heart rate, blood oxygen levels, and breathing effort. Lab studies can track even more.
The Apple Watch has a large suite of sensors
Notably, the Apple Watch already tracks much of this with its sophisticated array of sensors. Users have already used their watches to track sleep, and this model builds on that.
Sleep Apnea Support Models and Requirements
Luckily, the new health monitoring feature isn't just available on the latest and greatest Apple Watch models. It's also available on the latest generation.
Apple Watch Series 9, Apple Watch Series 10, and Apple Watch Ultra 2 are supported
Supported models include:
- Apple Watch Series 9
- Apple Watch Ultra 2
- Apple Watch Series 10
To the disappointment of some, this rules out the original Apple Watch Ultra. The reason is likely due to the SiP.
The Apple Watch Ultra uses the S8 SiP, which is largely unchanged from the S7 and even the S6 SiP. It was with the S9 that it finally got an update.
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Whether it's the processor, the Neural Engine, or the power efficiency, the S8 just isn't capable of adequately supporting it.
If you have a supported model, the only other requirement is that they be updated. Your Apple Watch must be running watchOS 11, and your iPhone must be running iOS 18.
How to Detect Sleep Apnea with Apple Watch
Setting up sleep apnea detection is quick and easy. It's all done from your iPhone.
Setting up sleep apnea monitoring in the Health app
- Open the Health app on your iPhone
- Go to Browse and search for “breathing disorders”
- The first time, you'll see a button at the top that says “set up”
- Answer a few clarifying questions and tap continue
- The app gives you a quick explanation, then you can tap next
Make sure your watch is charged before bed
Once it's turned on, you're good to go. Just make sure your watch is charged enough and wear it overnight.
Viewing your sleep apnea results
Right after your first night, you'll see your results reflected in the Health app. If the app detects elevated levels of abnormal breathing, it will send you an alert proactively.
Viewing your sleep apnea results in the Health app
If you want to review the data yourself, you can open the Health app again and go back to abnormal breathing.
It will show each night's results on a graph, ranging from not elevated to elevated. You can view it for each night or over time.
To be clear, if a positive detection is triggered, it does not diagnose you. The data can be exported and shared with your healthcare provider, who can run further diagnostics.
Elevated levels of abnormal breathing will trigger an alert
They may require you to do an additional sleep study. However, it is possible that after reviewing your data, doctors will feel confident in the diagnosis and begin to explore treatment options.
Sleep apnea detection is currently available in the US, but will roll out to more countries over time. Apple says more than 150 countries will get support for the feature.
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