Could Apple Watch measure anxiety?

[The Cockney Rebel]

When really anxious, heart rate and perspiration/temperature increases.

Could this be measured by Apple Watch, then maybe suggest a calming breathing exercise?

I think it could be useful.

Thoughts?

 

[Madonepro]

When really anxious, one’s heart rate and perspiration/temperature increases.

Could this be measured by Apple Watch, then maybe suggest a calming breathing exercise?

I think it could be useful.

Thoughts?

HRV and Stress metrics, show the effects of chronic anxiety. Anxiety is a normal response to stress, as it's our 'fight and flight' system at work. The chronic part, is when there are no external stimulus, just our internal voice.As you've stated, breathing exercises are good.

May I offer this suggestion of one, to listen/watch.

 

[The Cockney Rebel]

HRV and Stress metrics, show the effects of chronic anxiety. Anxiety is a normal response to stress, as it's our 'fight and flight' system at work. The chronic part, is when there are no external stimulus, just our internal voice.As you've stated, breathing exercises are good.

May I offer this suggestion of one, to listen/watch.

Thanks for that.

I’m watching the video, now 👍🏼.

 

[Beau10]

When really anxious, heart rate and perspiration/temperature increases.

Could this be measured by Apple Watch, then maybe suggest a calming breathing exercise?

I think it could be useful.

Thoughts?

I use Athlytic, which is a health tracking app that requires a sub @ $30/year. I pay for it as it tracks HRV which is the top indicator for cardiovascular health.

It has an active stress scoring system, which is a combo of HRV and RHR. You can assign a notification to be sent to the watch if a certain stress threshold is eclipsed.

 

[PaladinGuy]

I use Athlytic, which is a health tracking app that requires a sub @ $30/year. I pay for it as it tracks HRV which is the top indicator for cardiovascular health.

It has an active stress scoring system, which is a combo of HRV and RHR. You can assign a notification to be sent to the watch if a certain stress threshold is eclipsed.

This is a good suggestion. I’ve used Athlytic for years. The biggest limitation is that Apple Watch takes very infrequent HRV readings and sometimes infrequent HR readings. So you are likely not going to catch the spike in readings at the time you’d really need to have a moment of calmness/mindfulness.

 

[Abazigal]

Back when I was still using the Siri watch face on my apple watch, it would occasionally remind me to breathe, but I have no idea if the notification was a random one or pegging to some health metric the sensors detected. 😛

 

[The Cockney Rebel]

Appreciate the advice.

I’ll have a look at the app that’s been suggested.

 

[dotzero123]

Pair AW with a Whoop band

 

[martint235]

When really anxious, heart rate and perspiration/temperature increases.

Could this be measured by Apple Watch, then maybe suggest a calming breathing exercise?

I think it could be useful.

Thoughts?

An increase in heart rate and temperature could be anything though and potentially much more serious than anxiety. I have atrial fibrillation for example and while not serious in itself I wouldn’t want an episode to be misdiagnosed as anxiety.

 

[The Cockney Rebel]

An increase in heart rate and temperature could be anything though and potentially much more serious than anxiety. I have atrial fibrillation for example and while not serious in itself I wouldn’t want an episode to be misdiagnosed as anxiety.

Wishing you well, Martin.

 

[Bichon]

I'd think you need a different kind of wearable, perhaps a future product like an Apple Hat with integrated EEG sensors (that could measure and assess brain waves) to have any kind of real shot at accurately detecting mental health issues like anxiety and depression.

 

[mybodywatchdev]

When really anxious, heart rate and perspiration/temperature increases.

Could this be measured by Apple Watch, then maybe suggest a calming breathing exercise?

I think it could be useful.

Thoughts?

That's a great idea! The Apple Watch actually does detect some stress indicators through heart rate spikes and HRV drops. Apple's Breathe app tries to address this, but it's not proactive enough.

The challenge is distinguishing anxiety from normal elevation (walking upstairs, coffee, etc). You'd need a baseline for each person and context awareness.

I've been working with HRV data a lot lately - combining multiple metrics like HRV, RHR, and temperature trends gives much better insight than any single measurement. The key is making it simple enough that people actually use it rather than getting overwhelmed by data.

Have you tried any of the existing stress detection features in watchOS? Curious what your experience has been.

 

[The Cockney Rebel]

That's a great idea! The Apple Watch actually does detect some stress indicators through heart rate spikes and HRV drops. Apple's Breathe app tries to address this, but it's not proactive enough.

The challenge is distinguishing anxiety from normal elevation (walking upstairs, coffee, etc). You'd need a baseline for each person and context awareness.

I've been working with HRV data a lot lately - combining multiple metrics like HRV, RHR, and temperature trends gives much better insight than any single measurement. The key is making it simple enough that people actually use it rather than getting overwhelmed by data.

Have you tried any of the existing stress detection features in watchOS? Curious what your experience has been.

Thanks for the response.

I do get fairly regular high heart rate notifications, when I know I’m stressed/anxious.

Would be nice if Apple developed a specific app for this topic, as the watch can measure the metrics.

Thanks again, and wishing you well 👍🏼.

 

[MOAZZAM ALI]

I use Athlytic, which is a health tracking app that requires a sub @ $30/year. I pay for it as it tracks HRV which is the top indicator for cardiovascular health.

It has an active stress scoring system, which is a combo of HRV and RHR. You can assign a notification to be sent to the watch if a certain stress threshold is eclipsed.

Athlytic is solid for HRV. The stress scoring combo with RHR is underrated most people don't realize how much resting heart rate context changes the HRV picture. Have you found the threshold notifications actually useful day to day?

 

[Beau10]

Athlytic is solid for HRV. The stress scoring combo with RHR is underrated most people don't realize how much resting heart rate context changes the HRV picture. Have you found the threshold notifications actually useful day to day?

I personally don't use notifications, but yeah the HRV calc appears to be excellent, as well I trust their sleep scoring much more than Apple's.

 

[arc of the universe]

i second all the good comments about Athlytic.
great app.

but, two drawbacks for me:
1 its built for people principally in training to achieve workout goals. you can set it for other modes, but there is no denying that it has been designed for athletes.
2 the way it analyzes the data collected is pretty much hard coated. it was built pre-AI boom. although they have introduced a cool AI anaylsis of your workout. but all you need to do is press the workout AI analysis button a second time and you can get a completely different (and wrong) analysis of that same workout. i just keep pressing the button until i get an analysis i like. its pretty amusing.

so, for me, i recently went looking for alternatives.
downloaded and have been using Bevel for about two weeks.
it uses all the same data points as Athlytic, but has also a feature to have it read lab reports, data such as cholesterol data from health checkups, etc etc, and all of that is used in its biological age calculation.
and although it too is principally for people who want to get fit, it doesn't have a feeling like its for athletes in training like Athlytic does.
it feels like they have written it for people who actually want to take advantage of all the metrics the Watch offers, and apple still isn't providing prior to its rumored re-write of its Health app.
best of all is that in Bevel, AI is written into all aspects of its advice from the ground up. Bevel gives me way more info about why and the science and ties it all together in easy to understand language.
i don't know which AI company Bevel is using, but its a great advancement in these kinds of apps.