Reevaluating My Views on Tracking Sleep Patterns for Better Health

Key Takeaways

• Tracking sleep with an Apple Watch is surprisingly comfortable and easy, providing interesting data on sleep quality and patterns.
• Use sleep tracking data to experiment with improving sleep habits, such as different wind-down activities or adjusting bedroom conditions.
• Set a silent wrist tap alarm on your Watch for a gentler wake-up experience and use Sleep Focus to combat pesky notifications.

How much REM sleep did you get last night? You’d know if you started to use your Apple Watch to start tracking your sleep, instead of leaving it on the charger.

Why I Started Wearing My Watch in Bed

I only started tracking my sleep on an Apple Watch last week, despite having worn one regularly since 2018. Apple first introduced sleep tracking in watchOS 7, released in 2020. At the time I didn’t even bat an eyelid, the only time I wore my Watch in bed was when I forgot to take it off.

I only decided to give sleep tracking a shot because I needed some data. For one night I set up sleep tracking on my Watch to get a nice graph I could use in an article. The plan was to then go back to sleeping sans Apple Watch. It’s now been over a week, and I’m hooked on tracking my sleep.

Surprisingly, wearing an Apple Watch to bed isn’t as uncomfortable as I thought it would be. It’s the main reason I never bothered tracking sleep before, and it’s thankfully easy to get used to it. Apple did a great job of designing a wearable with smooth rounded edges, though Apple Watch Ultra owners might tell a different tale. Even the nylon, polyester, and spandex blend Sports Loop band is more comfortable than its fabric composition might imply.

Tim Brookes / How-To Geek

Part of adjusting to tracking my sleep meant finding time to charge my Watch. Since I work at a computer, I now take my Watch off in the morning and plug it into my MacBook until I see an “Apple Watch charged” notification. Wearing the Watch to bed only seems to consume about 20% battery at most, so I don’t usually have to charge it at night.

One thing I quickly grew to appreciate is being able to glance at a dim Watch face in the middle of the night. Seeing what time it is and how long I’ve got until I have to face the day is much more pleasant than peering at a dazzling iPhone display. StandBy mode on an always-on-display is probably even better.

I also no longer have to worry about remembering to charge my Watch at night. As someone who leaves their Watch charger in the living room, having to get out of bed at midnight because I realized I’d forgotten to attach the charger happened way too often.

Sleep Tracking Data Is Just Interesting

Most people start tracking sleep with an Apple Watch to gather data. Your Apple Watch can somewhat reliably tell you all sorts of things about your sleep quality, including how much shut-eye you’re getting, how many times you wake up in the night, and how long you spend in each sleep stage.

There’s not a lot you can really do with this data, and it’s worth remembering that the Apple Watch lacks the accuracy you might get from a proper sleep study. Despite this, the data is interesting (especially if you’re a bit of a data nerd). You can learn about REM, core, and deep sleep and see how these metrics change over time.

Feeling drained by lunchtime is a good sign that you’re tired, but having a number on your wrist (or in your iPhone’s Health app) that proves what a terrible night’s sleep you had can feel validating.

You can try to use this data to improve your sleep. Experiment with different wind-down activities like reading, taking a bath, meditation, or cutting out activities close to bedtime and see what happens. Compare how different seasons and conditions affect your sleep, then make adjustments like losing that extra blanket or closing the window at night.

The Sleep app on your Watch will show you a brief overview of sleeping trends once you start to gather enough data. You’ll also be able to see how your sleep patterns are trending in the iPhone Health app. Who doesn’t love trends?

You’ll also gather data about your vitals while you sleep, including your heart rate (you’d be surprised how low it can go), blood oxygen, and tidbits like how much energy you burn at rest while sleeping. If you’re the sort of person who occasionally opens Health and flicks through your records, you’ll get a kick out of this.

A Better Alarm Than the iPhone

Do you hate the sound of an alarm in the morning? Set a silent wrist tap alarm on your Apple Watch and wake up to the feeling of a bird gently pecking you awake. Well, not quite, but it beats being woken up to shrill alarm muzak and it has the added benefit of not waking anyone who happens to be sleeping next to you.

Apple’s “Early Riser” alarm tone that’s set as the default tone when enabling the Sleep Schedule feature is thankfully sedate if you decide that sound is necessary to jolt you awake. Having it go off on your wrist rather than the iPhone you knocked off the nightstand in the night is an objectively better way to wake up.

If you use the Sleep Focus to silence notifications from all but an allow-list of apps and contacts , turning off your alarm in the morning will automatically disable Focus and greet you with a “Good morning” message that summarizes the day ahead including overall temperatures and current Watch charge. Otherwise, you’ll need to disable it manually.

Give Sleep Tracking a Shot

Tracking your sleep with any wearable, let alone the Apple Watch, probably won’t change your life. I’m not going to fret if I miss a few nights here or there. I already had to solve an issue where the Apple Watch refused to track my sleep randomly anyway. I’m more concerned about hitting my move goal , daily step counts, and stand hours.

If you’ve already got a Watch and you’re curious, sleep tracking could be worth a shot. As long as you can find time to charge your Watch during the day, what have you got to lose?