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How Sleep Apnea Detection Works for Apple Watch Series 10, Series 9, and Apple Watch Ultra
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My wife is my sleep apnea detector, I have no plans to force her out of the job.
I did a sleep study to have my sleep apnea diagnosed. Lo and behold, SpO2 sensor in my AWU1, showed several disturbances (me “being awake”) of 5 minutes almost every night, which after having my sleep doctor look over, inform me that this possibly looks like the times that I stopped breathing in my sleep. With this data alone, I could’ve came forward and asked for a sleep study. I had a PE last summer and had some debilitating migraines that almost hospitalized me, that prompted my pcp to ask for a sleep study.
Sleep apnea caused me to also have high blood pressure. 47lbs lighter and I still need my cpap machine and I still experience daytime sleepiness, just not as severe. With Apple not resolving the O2 sensor patent, there’s no way I’m upgrading my ultra to another one anytime soon.
You can use the double punch on the 9. It’s in watchos10.1. And sleep apnea is coming to the 9 and ultra 2 as well once it’s released. There’s a thing for it already under sleep in watchos11 RC but it doesn’t seem usable yet. Maybe 11.0.1 or 11.1
I'm glad to hear you are in a much better place than you were a year ago.
I think its more of a vital measuring tool than people give it credit for. Like you, I am surprised Apple has not resolved this and I wont upgrade my Ultra until they do.
Although, I've heard, for what its worth, that Masimo's demands are beyond ridiculous.
I know O2 sensors are used for diagnosis purposes in people with asthma. I can see Apple delving into that in the future. Also something I would be interested in.
I like the design and the new black colour of the Apple Watch 10 and also the new sleep apnea feature, so I will buy the AW10.
There is no new Ultra 3 and I find the current Ultra 2 design too clunky, which also plays into my decision.
I snore and I've had several alerts from my Apple Watch 7 that my heart rate had dropped below 40 during my sleep.
No idea if it has anything to do with sleep apnoea.
There is no new Ultra 3 and I find the current Ultra 2 design too clunky, which also plays into my decision.
I snore and I've had several alerts from my Apple Watch 7 that my heart rate had dropped below 40 during my sleep.
No idea if it has anything to do with sleep apnoea.
The idea is that there are a lot of people who might not be aware that they could have it because sleep apnea doesn’t necessarily have a singular and easily differentiated symptom. The feature is there to inform people that they might have it so they can go get a sleep study done. Same idea with the EKG.
I already have sleep apnea and I use a cpap. I know a lot of people that know they have sleep apnea but won't do a cpap anyway. My dad pretty much died of sleep apnea and didn't use a cpap but he was 81 and only had 1 lung left when he died 12 years ago. I've had my cpap 2 years now. I'm still surprised most of my friends (I'm 50) never go to the doctor but complain about their health, I've gotten a yearly physical since I was 25.
The moment when a person with sleep apnea wakes, they do so with a jolt.
Everybody can wake with a jolt from time to time, but people with apnea do so repeatedly throughout the night.
It is quite different from turning and tossing.
I tried it for a while but it made me sleep so badly because mentally I was trying to get the perfect sleep, which put me under unreasonable pressure to sleep and as a result I couldn’t sleep 😅
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Btw the Galaxy Watch 7 version of this is already FDA approved and does it in combination with the Blood Oxygen measurement. Oh and it even works on older watches with an update! Apple would never
I’ve always had abysmal eyesight and have worn my timex watch with a backlight button to bed since they were invented. So wearing the AW to sleep is second nature for me.
I am no expert but measuring arm movement seems like the most unscientific way possible to detect sleep apnea. I would have expected at least to use the blood oxygen meter for this.
Love the feature, and the fact that it is clinically validated.
The gatekeeping is absolute BS though, this should be available across the WatchOS 11 supported range.
The avarice is becoming more and more of a problem with Apple.
The gatekeeping is absolute BS though, this should be available across the WatchOS 11 supported range.
The avarice is becoming more and more of a problem with Apple.
You lose all credibility with your argument when you use the term iWatch. Blood pressure monitoring on a wrist is years away. Anybody that claims be doing it now is extremely inaccurate..
So does it wake you up when it detects apnea, or is it just collecting data?
Apple is adding sleep apnea detection to the Apple Watch Series 10, Apple Watch Ultra 2, and the Apple Watch Series 9. Given that sleep apnea is a breathing disturbance, it's easy to assume that it requires the blood oxygen sensor, but Apple actually uses an entirely different method to detect it.
Breathing Disturbances, the name for the new Apple Watch metric, uses the built-in accelerometer to detect small movements at the wrist that are associated with interruptions to normal respiratory patterns during sleep.
The Apple Watch collects 30 days of data and then analyzes it, alerting users if there are consistent signs of moderate to severe sleep apnea. Users will see Elevated or Not Elevated readings under the Breathing Disturbances section of the Health app, and the data can be used to share with a doctor to get information on the next steps for sleep apnea diagnosis and treatment.
While aggregating data for sleep apnea detection requires 30 days of information, users can see an overall look at their nightly Breathing Disturbances in the Health app to assess the restfulness of sleep. Breathing patterns can be interrupted by alcohol, medications, and sleep position.
With sleep apnea, breathing momentarily stops during sleep, which stops the body from getting adequate oxygen and often has the effect of waking a person up. It can be a difficult condition to diagnose because it occurs during sleep, and Apple says that more than 1 billion people are estimated to be impacted worldwide.
Apple says that its sleep apnea notification algorithm was created using advanced machine learning and an extensive data set of clinical-grade sleep apnea tests, and then it was validated in a clinical study. Every participant identified by the algorithm had at least mild sleep apnea.
Apple expects sleep apnea detection to get marketing authorization from the FDA and other global health authorities in the near future, and it will be available this month in more than 150 countries.
Article Link: How Sleep Apnea Detection Works for Apple Watch Series 10, Series 9, and Apple Watch Ultra
Serious sleep apnea results in hypoxia, or low oxygen, which causes one to wake up distressed. Blood oxygen is the only relevant metric, also for professionals. There must be a political or trademark reason to claim that they use a different measurement. An indirect measurement is less precise then a direct oxygen measurement.
I'm tempted to upgrade my watch early for this feature alone.
My doctors office "insists" I don't have sleep apnea despite having all the symptoms, friends of mine both doctors and nurses all say they can hear my breathing stop while sleeping (they all heard me on many camping trips), even my dentist says they can tell by something in my throat I have sleep apnea.
But no no...a single broken take home unit that stopped working right after I put it on says I dont have it so I must not have it *eyeroll*.
My doctors office "insists" I don't have sleep apnea despite having all the symptoms, friends of mine both doctors and nurses all say they can hear my breathing stop while sleeping (they all heard me on many camping trips), even my dentist says they can tell by something in my throat I have sleep apnea.
But no no...a single broken take home unit that stopped working right after I put it on says I dont have it so I must not have it *eyeroll*.
The whole point of this is to alert people who may not even be aware they have sleep apnea. The condition often goes unnoticed because, well, we’re sleeping. One study said that between 85% and 90% of people with sleep apnea don’t know they have it.