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Overnight usage

F

fishlopedia

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 27, 2017
4
3
Hi all,

It’s my first week with a 38mm Series 3 GPS and I’m loving it so far.

I wear the watch overnight for sleep tracking with autosleep, also in theatre mode. I’ve noticed that I get 15-20% battery drain overnight, and the usage time seems to tick up by ~30-50 minutes.

Is this normal? I read some people getting just 2-3% battery drain overnight.

I've tried DND, different watch faces, unpair/re-pair, but no change.

Thanks!
 
I don’t change anything before bed; I’m not a great sleeper so I’d guess the screen comes on a fair bit but I’m on 97% now having charged it before bed last night. I don’t have anything to suggest but it does sound like something's up with your watch.
 
A watch in cinema mode should drain around 1.6% per hour. So depending on how much your sleeping thats about normal.

2-3% I Call bull spit as there is no way the watch can only burn that much in anything other than low power mode. Wearing it at night should use no more or no less power than during the day.
 
Nell said:
I don’t change anything before bed; I’m not a great sleeper so I’d guess the screen comes on a fair bit but I’m on 97% now having charged it before bed last night. I don’t have anything to suggest but it does sound like something's up with your watch.
Click to expand...

Is that on the 38mm too?
 
fishlopedia said:
Is that on the 38mm too?
Click to expand...

Sorry, no; it’s a 42mm. I forgot that bit!


Mercenary said:
A watch in cinema mode should drain around 1.6% per hour. So depending on how much your sleeping thats about normal.

2-3% I Call bull spit as there is no way the watch can only burn that much in anything other than low power mode. Wearing it at night should use no more or no less power than during the day.
Click to expand...

I can only go by what my watch says but it was on 100% when I went to bed and on 97% this morning. I did have a late night and it’s now down to 94% but that’s a loss of 6% in 8-9 hours including a bit of app usage to check train departure boards.
 
Nell said:
Sorry, no; it’s a 42mm. I forgot that bit!




I can only go by what my watch says but it was on 100% when I went to bed and on 97% this morning. I did have a late night and it’s now down to 94% but that’s a loss of 6% in 8-9 hours including a bit of app usage to check train departure boards.
Click to expand...

3% drain is about the same for me on my 38mm Series 3 (non LTE). I use Pillow app, Heartwatch and Sleep Watch all at the same time to track my sleep. I do put it on do not disturb and theatre mode.
 
Charged to 100%. Taken off charger 2 hours before bed. 42mm S3 LTE. Airplane mode and theater mode. Woke up 9 hours (thankful for vacation time) later to 86%. I recently installed Autosleep and anecdotal evidence suggests it drains.

I absolutely HAVE gone just from 100% to 97% on an 8 hour sleep IF I pull the Watch off the charger right at bed time and it had been at 100% on the charger for a couple hours. But come to think of it since autosleep I don’t think even that has been the case. I always airplane mode, but didn’t start theatre moding until I remembered it a few weeks ago. So my 100 to 97 was with screen activating some (I don’t move much).

It also takes about 4-5 hours for the watch to change from 100% to 99% if I pull it off charger at 0600 upon waking and it charged overnight. I think they charge “past” 100% if left on the charger, or the discharge calibration needs tweaking. I may uninstall Autosleep to test drain.
 
I have a 38mm series 0 I bought in July 2015 that I wear to bed for sleep tracking with the Pillow app. I also put it into theater mode. My charging routine is to charge the watch before bed, while I’m putting the kids to bed and relaxing. I go to sleep with the watch fully charged and when I wake up it is usually at 85%. I put it on the charger again while I shower and eat breakfast. That way it’s topped off before I leave. I usually still have 20-30% left when I charge it again 14 hours later, but workouts drain the battery a bit fast and might push me into the 10-20% range.

Sean
 
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My 42mm S3 only looses a few percent overnight and I don’t change anything at all. Are you running 3rd part sleep trackers or other programs?
 
I have a few sleep tracking apps. I really like both SleepWatch and AutoSleep. I’ve been trying Pillow again because lots of people seem to rate it but it has to be started (on the watch and phone) and I find that intrusive (it wakes me back up if I’m sleepy).
 
Nell said:
I have a few sleep tracking apps. I really like both SleepWatch and AutoSleep. I’ve been trying Pillow again because lots of people seem to rate it but it has to be started (on the watch and phone) and I find that intrusive (it wakes me back up if I’m sleepy).
Click to expand...

You’re supposed to start Pillow as soon as you get into bed, even if you like to read until you fall asleep. One of the useful metrics it captures is how long it takes you to fall asleep. It also automatically records every time I get out of bed (which is at least once a night) and how long I was awake during that break in sleep. My problem with the auto sleep and sleep watch apps was they didn’t capture those late night interruptions. Perhaps they do now, because this was almost two years ago that I tested them. They just didn’t work well for me. I never forget to stop or start Pillow because it’s part of my routine.
 
Last edited:
I also have a battery drain problem. I don't wear it during sleep but if I wear my watch during the day I get excellent battery use. BUT, if I forget to put it on the charger when going to bed, and it just sits overnight off the charger, I get about 20 to 25% battery drain just by it sitting out. I also see phantom usage in the usage reading. Obviously, I am not using the watch at all if I am in bed asleep. I have run tests on it for instance, I charged the watch to 100% right before going to bed and let it just sit out off the charger and get the 20-25% battery drain the next morning after 8 hours of sleep and phantom usage. I have no idea why. This is on a 38mm Apple Watch 3 SS LTE. Going to take it to apple to test why this is happening.
 
sean000 said:
You’re supposed to start Pillow as soon as you get into bed, even if you like to read until you fall asleep. One of the useful metrics it captures is how long it takes you to fall asleep. It also automatically records every time I get out of bed (which is at least once a night) and how long I was awake during that break in sleep. My problem with the auto sleep and sleep watch apps was they didn’t capture those late night interruptions. Perhaps they do now, because this was almost two years ago that I tested them. They just didn’t work well for me. I never forget to stop or start Pillow because it’s part of my routine.
Click to expand...

I’ve been trying Pillow again for a week and have started it twice. I often watch TV or do some work sitting up in bed so I don’t have the sort of routine it fits into. I don’t think I’ve found it better than the other trackers at spotting times I’m awake in the night (whether out of bed or not) but I must look back through the data.

Using apps like AutoSleep and SleepWatch is helping me get more sleep though which is great.
 
Have to adjust my response above. For last few days, my S3 42mm LTE watch, taken off charger at bed time at 100% has landed at about 86% after 8 hours of auto sleep tracking, airplane mode, theater mode.

But for last two nights I've worn my S2 42mm watch under same conditions and both mornings I woke up to 100% showing. It actually took an hour or so off airplane/theater mode for the battery to drop below 100%

Both running autosleep overnight. Not sure why the drain on my S3.
 
I only use theatre mode and AutoSleep that isn’t even installed on the watch and get about 100-98% after 7-8 hours of sleep. Even my old S0 would be 94% after a year old and my S2 was normally around 100%.

I have had as bad as 94% over the same 7-8 hours of sleep and LTE off or on did not change the percentage at all.

The rare times that I would see 85% or so, was time for a cold boot and everything was back to normal.

All 42mm
 
warburg said:
Where do you get apps like SleepWatch and AutoSleep?
Click to expand...

You can find all the sleep apps in the app store. Just open the App Store app, or open the Watch app and go to the App store icon in there. You can see screenshots, features, and more reviews for all of the above. If you search for "sleep tracking apps," you will see Pillow, Sleep Watch, and AutoSleep as the top three in the list (at least those were what showed up firs when I searched).

Sean
 
Just a data point:
Watch 3 42-mm (non-LTE) with Autosleep installed. Never bother to enable theater mode nor airplane mode in the evening. Wear watch to bed to track sleep.

I charge the watch after an hour+ workout, while playing podcast and running the Workout app, and checking progress frequently. I still got around 60-70% charge left at the time of charging at 7:30 pm. I wear the watch again at around 9 pm with 100% charge.

In the next morning at 8 am, I usually get around 97% charge left. During the day, I check time once in a while obviously, as well as read text, email once in a while, and get stock alerts sometime. With this typical usage, I can get away with 48 hours without charging, and still have around 10-15% charge left.

The autosleep watch app is not required to track sleep. You can delete it from the watch. Its iPhone app can still read the sensor data per the developer. Therefore, I doubt that autosleep watch app is the one to blame.
 
Also, especially with the Series 3 LTE cellular, it's a question of whether you leave the phone on at night. If you turn the phone off, you will have considerable battery drain.
 
I have an Apple Watch 3 42mm - Non-LTE with Autosleep installed / Wife has Apple Watch 3 38mm - Non-LTE with Autosleep installed.. 3% usage every night is about right for me. My wife has the 38mm and she sees 5-7% drain overnight.

She has rise to wake on, I do not (I find it wakes me up too much (I sleep on my side)). We both leave our phones on and have them next to our beds while we sleep.

I usually end a day with 85+% and my wife's watch is usually around 70%. And like Mike Mike said - we both just use the autosleep app on the phone - there was no noticeable increase in battery loss after buying this app and using it vs not.
 
100% doesn't mean 100%. If you leave the watch on the charger, once it gets to 100%, the battery circuitry will allow it to repeatedly discharge down to ~90%, and then back up to 100%, but all while still showing 100%. A lot of the variability people see is because they pulled it off the charger at the wrong point.
If you rememeber the iPad 3 'battery gate' from 2012, this will be familiar to you.
 
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Does anyone know a way to schedule Theatre mode automatically? It sucks one has to remember to do that every time one goes to bed...
 
fishlopedia said:
Hi all,

It’s my first week with a 38mm Series 3 GPS and I’m loving it so far.

I wear the watch overnight for sleep tracking with autosleep, also in theatre mode. I’ve noticed that I get 15-20% battery drain overnight, and the usage time seems to tick up by ~30-50 minutes.

Is this normal? I read some people getting just 2-3% battery drain overnight.

I've tried DND, different watch faces, unpair/re-pair, but no change.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

I go to bed with the watch at 100% with Theater Mode and Do Not Disturb mode on. I wake 7-8 hours later with the battery between 99-97%. I use AutoSleep for sleep tracking. The watch is a 42mm SBSS Series 3.
 
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