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thekeyring

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Jan 5, 2012
3,502
2,166
London
What apps do people recommend? Do you use them in Nightstand mode with your Watch on the nightstand, or while wearing the watch to sleep?
 

matthew.ochs.90

macrumors newbie
Aug 31, 2015
17
35
Broomfield, CO
I used AutoSleep. With AWS3’s great battery life I wear my watch while sleeping. Average battery usage during that time has been 4-7%. That is 6-7 hours of sleep, so not bad at all IMO. It has really good data, syncs with Health app, good UI on app.
This week I am gonna try using it in theater mode while I sleep, to see if it shaves even more off the battery usage by a couple % points.
 

edhchoe

macrumors 65816
Oct 28, 2011
1,401
900
I use Pillow. It is free to use but $4.99 In App purchase is available for weekly, monthly, yearly data.
I wear the watch to bed and I don't use the iphone for sound recording and morning alarm.
It uses about 5% of the watch battery overnight.
I also use the theater mode now so that it does not come on unless I touch the screen.
 

Volusia

macrumors 6502
Jun 8, 2016
384
274
Central Florida
I also use the AutoSleep app. I have a heart condition so I have HeartWatch, which is another component of the AutoSleep. I do generally wear my watch to bed, charge it while having breakfast and a shower and it is good all day and night.

And, Matthew.ochs.90, I keep mine in Theater mode while sleeping. Not only does it help some with the battery, the watch doesn't come on and blind me if I move my arm in the middle of the night!
 

Mercenary

macrumors 65816
Sep 17, 2012
1,243
627
Auto sleep also doesnt take any additional power or even need the app to be installed on the watch. If you do wear it to bed it will use the data the watch already gathers about movement and heart rate. So I've only just installed it and it's analysed my sleep going back months and even shows my quality of sleep for the nights where I have worn it.

While it has a watch app this is nothing more than a view of the data on your phone.
 

Nell

macrumors 6502a
Jun 25, 2012
583
262
London
I also use AutoSleep; having just bought a new S3 Watch, I use my old one for sleep tracking and charge the new one overnight (although I don’t always remember to make the swap but that’s fine as the S3 will easily get me through two days).
 

darrinS

macrumors 65816
Oct 21, 2011
1,155
998
So Cal
I use Pillow and wear my AW3 to bed every night. I paid the $4.99 for it. I personally find it works great. I have tried several apps, but to me none work this good. I really like the daily information provided to me on the watch. It also seems spot on accurate. Like when I wake up at night and move around and the number of dreams I have coincide with the REM sleep reported. I tried AutoSleep and it just didnt work for me. When I would sit down in my recliner to watch TV at night, it would think I was sleeping. I prefer to manually start the sleep cycle and stop it.
 
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Hansana

macrumors 6502
Jul 2, 2014
393
586
I jut bought auto sleep the other day. I wear my Apple Watch when I go to sleep. Here is a screenshot of my last night sleep. It shows my heart rate during my sleep and restlessness during the sleep. Good app
00446dc05af0b66b45d08d8795f11ff8.png
 

newellj

macrumors G3
Oct 15, 2014
8,154
3,047
East of Eden
How do you avoid false triggers? It never thinks you’re asleep when you are just kicking back and relaxing? Maybe I had mine setup incorrectly.

I was wondering if it would work, but over the past week plus it has been right on the money. The app has a setting that is basically "don't mark me as asleep before x time" that works for me because I'm very predictable about when I hit the rack.
[doublepost=1508180935][/doublepost]
I've found Pillow to be way more accurate than AutoSleep. So happy Pillow user here :).

I'll check it out, thanks.
 
I use Sleep Watch. It integrates with the Apple Health app and has a nice detailed iPhone app of it's own. Many sleep tracking apps require you to trigger the app when you go to sleep. Sleep Watch knows when you are sleeping, so no special interaction to remember before sleeping is required.

My watch's battery life is great with this app, I go to bed with 100% battery (Apple Watch Series 3) and—after a seven or eight hour sleep—I wake with the battery at around 96%.

vepvr0l.png
A5bnn6G.png
 

Nell

macrumors 6502a
Jun 25, 2012
583
262
London
I have Sleep Watch but haven’t really looked at it since starting to use AutoSleep; I’ve just taken a look and it is much improved.
 
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newellj

macrumors G3
Oct 15, 2014
8,154
3,047
East of Eden
I have Sleep Watch but haven’t really looked at it since starting to use AutoSleep; I’ve just taken a look and it is much improved.

I'm very happy with AutoSleep but would be interested in any comments you have on Sleep Watch. I'll take a look, too.
 

newellj

macrumors G3
Oct 15, 2014
8,154
3,047
East of Eden
How do you avoid false triggers? It never thinks you’re asleep when you are just kicking back and relaxing? Maybe I had mine setup incorrectly.

Coming back with what's hopefully a clearer answer. Basically, when I set up the app the first time, I accepted the defaults and specified a target time for when I will be sleeping. The only other setup choice I recall making was telling the app that I wear the watch while sleeping. It has been very accurate. Reading some reviews from May 2017, it seems like AutoSleep's developers have done some work to make this app "just work" and at least for me they've done a great job.
 

BrianSoCal

macrumors 6502a
Oct 16, 2011
595
418
Houston, TX
I use Sleep Watch. It integrates with the Apple Health app and has a nice detailed iPhone app of it's own. Many sleep tracking apps require you to trigger the app when you go to sleep. Sleep Watch knows when you are sleeping, so no special interaction to remember before sleeping is required.

My watch's battery life is great with this app, I go to bed with 100% battery (Apple Watch Series 3) and—after a seven or eight hour sleep—I wake with the battery at around 96%.

vepvr0l.png
A5bnn6G.png

Wow, app looks great! I've been a AutoSleep user for months, but love the UI of Sleep Watch. I may have to give it a try.
 
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MLVC

macrumors 68000
Apr 30, 2015
1,648
3,816
Maastricht, The Netherlands
The problem with AutoSleep is that it always tells me my sleep quality is 100% even if I had a crap night with a lot of tossing and turning. Pillow picks that all up without a problem though.
 

newellj

macrumors G3
Oct 15, 2014
8,154
3,047
East of Eden
The problem with AutoSleep is that it always tells me my sleep quality is 100% even if I had a crap night with a lot of tossing and turning. Pillow picks that all up without a problem though.

Interesting. Do you wear the watch while sleeping?
 

Fireball Dragon

macrumors 6502a
Nov 26, 2012
880
256
Chigwell, England
I’m glad that the OP started this thread, thanks.

I downloaded ‘pillow’ last night and only had one sleep in it. You have to manually trigger it, but seems to work well. I have no frame of reference to compare with.

Are the apps which automatically trigger sleep accurate?
 

newellj

macrumors G3
Oct 15, 2014
8,154
3,047
East of Eden
I’m glad that the OP started this thread, thanks.

I downloaded ‘pillow’ last night and only had one sleep in it. You have to manually trigger it, but seems to work well. I have no frame of reference to compare with.

Are the apps which automatically trigger sleep accurate?

AutoSleep has been accurate with startup and stop for me.
 
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Dizle

macrumors 6502
Jun 30, 2008
308
8
The Beach
I use Sleep Watch and I like it, seems to be accurate enough. It says I get much better sleep than my Garmin (I agree more with AW results) but you can adjust the sensitivity if need be.

Would putting my Watch in airplane mode at night save battery? I already had DND on every night so no notifications are coming through. I guess airplane mode would just cut off Bluetooth then. I seem to lose 7-10% at night with the wrist raise off.
 
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I use Sleep Watch and I like it, seems to be accurate enough. It says I get much better sleep than my Garmin (I agree more with AW results) but you can adjust the sensitivity if need be.

Would putting my Watch in airplane mode at night save battery? I already had DND on every night so no notifications are coming through. I guess airplane mode would just cut off Bluetooth then. I seem to lose 7-10% at night with the wrist raise off.
Try Theater mode (or--at the least--Do Not Disturb mode). I have my iPhone set to automatically go into DND mode and the watch automatically follows that schedule. Therefore, when I'm sleeping DND on my watch is activated without me having to actively set it.
 
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