I usually don't want to wear my Apple Watch while I sleep. Yes, I can turn off notifications on my watch to avoid audiovisual clutter on my wrist. I'm fine waking up to the alarm on my phone and don't need a watch to beep into my ears.
The disdain is somewhat justified, since I bought the smartwatch primarily to track my workouts. Plus, I just can't sleep with the device strapped to my wrist. It's just inconvenient. But recently the attitude has softened.
Recently, my family doctor made me sleep at least 7-8 hours to ensure that my attacks do not return. And since I have to provide my sleep data for monthly assessments, I try my best and take the hours to sleep.
But it looks like the Apple Watch is doing more for my sleep and overall health than I thought. Or even what Apple advertised. And I think I'm going to get into the habit of sleeping with my Apple Watch for the sake of my cardiac and neurological health, whether I like it or not.
A new study just found that deviating from your usual sleep time may increase your risk. sleep apnea And hypertension. And here's the interesting part. The Apple Watch already has a metric that tracks irregularities in your sleep schedule and can also measure spikes in blood pressure.
What finally changed my mind
Scientists from Scripps Research, a leading nonprofit biomedical research center, analyzed the effectiveness of digital activity trackers such as the Apple Watch, Fitbit wearables and the Oura ring. The goal was to evaluate sleep data in a study called the Research Framework for Exploring Sleep Health (REFRESH).
The team recruited more than a thousand adults across the country and provided an average of two years of sleep data collected using wearable devices. The main goal was to study their sleep behavior, classifying them as “night owls” or “larks.” At the end of the study, the team found that even an hour's delay in regular bedtime significantly increased the likelihood of developing sleep apnea and hypertension.
The findings, published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, noted that delaying participants' regular bedtime by one hour “more than doubled the risk of sleep apnea and was 71 percent more likely to develop high blood pressure.”
Calling this a “robust” and “compelling link” between sleep variability and health conditions such as sleep apnea and high blood pressure, the team advocates that wearables like the Apple Watch could be used for early disease detection and prevention.
“We're now in the pattern recognition phase. We're confirming the existence of these associations and understanding the mechanisms,” said Scripps Research assistant professor Stuti Jaiswal. However, the impact could be significant for millions of people around the world, including me.
Apple Watch is already recording my bedtime routine
According to an article published in the magazine Lancet of Respiratory Medicine magazine, obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) affects nearly a billion people worldwide. In the US, estimates range from 30 to 60 million adults, and by 2050 that number is expected to reach a staggering 77 million.
Sleep apnea can vary in degree, but the impact is profound. In severe cases, it can lead to deterioration in cognitive function, mood and daytime functioning. Studies have also found a high prevalence of cardiac arrhythmias in patients with severe sleep apnea. It is widely known that sleep apnea is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular and metabolic problems.
And here's the worst thing. “You may not even know you have this very common problem,” say experts from Johns Hopkins Medicine. Luckily, Apple Watch can now alert you to signs of moderate to severe sleep apnea by tracking your body movements while you sleep to detect breathing problems.
According to the latest study from Scripps Research, your sleep patterns can affect your risk of sleep apnea. Apple's final dream is here Check the system comes into play. This new feature takes into account three main metrics – how long you sleep (50 points), breaks (20 points) and how closely you stick to your sleep schedule (30 points).
Based on these three ratings, Apple Watch assigns a score from 0 to 100, broken down into five quality levels. The Scripps Research study focuses on the latter aspect, namely how strictly you adhere to your bedtime schedule. Apple has been tracking this metric for months now, and I'm finally realizing its true importance.
A Deeper Look at Blood Pressure Problems
Apple Watch also comes with Hypertension Alerts. As the name suggests, it can detect and alert users about hypertension, also known as chronic high blood pressure. Hypertension, which affects more than a billion people worldwide, increases the risk of heart attack, stroke and kidney disease.
The most alarming thing is that, like sleep apnea, there are no obvious symptoms of hypertension. The Apple Watch lends a helping hand here. The smartwatch's optical biosensor measures how blood vessels contract and dilate during heartbeats and algorithmically detects abnormal movements.
Here's how it relates to the latest research. If you get a hypertension alert on Apple Watch and aren't sure what to do next, you can check your sleep history to see if your bedtime has been consistent lately. This can be done by reviewing sleep assessment logs or even a general sleep history.
And while you're at it, you can also check out the Vitals app, which tracks five metrics—heart rate, breathing rate, blood oxygen levels, wrist temperature, and sleep duration—throughout the night. The best way out, of course, is to visit a doctor. But, armed with your medical history before bed, you'll have more important information to share with your doctor for a more accurate diagnosis.
Scripps Research experts note that further analysis is needed to understand how deep the relationship between sleep patterns and the risk of hypertension is, but they already see a visible connection. I'm just glad that the Apple Watch on my wrist can already measure these metrics and I can reliably track them for my physical well-being. And if that means wearing it to bed, I'm willing to put up with the inconvenience.
