Apple Watch sleep tracking feature: An easy guide to better sleep quality

Track your sleep using apple watch (Image via Vecteezy)

If you're an Apple Watch user, you're in for a surprise! A simple yet powerful sleep tracking feature on it can potentially improve your life. This accessible feature is more than a sleeping aid - it's a health revolution right on your wrist. Use this tool to monitor your sleep patterns, learn about your rest quality, and get a healthier lifestyle.

Sleep monitoring for better cognitive health

Sleep tracking feature (Image via Vecteezy)

Sleep tracks in the domain of Apple Watches trace their roots back to watchOS 9 in 2022. This update graced the watches with advanced sleep tracking features, serving up data that paints a clear picture of your sleep quality.

Apart from checking when the lights go out for you, the watches now focus on the quality of the sleep, providing a much-needed look into the different stages of your slumber.

Setting up your smartwatch is easy (Image via Vecteezy)

For starters, here's what you'll need to get the Apple Watch sleep tracking to work:

Your Apple Watch needs to be on your wrist when you go to sleep.
Activating Sleep Tracking in your iPhone's Watch app is a must.
Enable 'Sleep Focus' on your Apple Watch.
Sleep for at least four hours - less than four hours sleep won't track.

During Sleep Focus, all notifications are kept at bay, fostering the ideal environment for a peaceful sleep. You can customize it to allow notifications from select contacts or apps, just in case you are expecting important notifications while catching some sleep.

You can personalize Sleep Focus through these steps:

Long-press the Focus tile in the Control Centre.
Tap the three dots icon.
Select Settings.

Setting Up Sleep Schedule: A Personalized Sleep Setup

Options to set up sleep cycle that suits you (Image via Vecteezy)

Apple offers you the opportunity to tailor sleep schedules on your iPhone. This can help achieve your sleep goals, regardless of whether you own an Apple Watch. You can also do this within your iPhone's Health app. Once you get to 'Set Up Sleep', you can outline sleep goals or the number of hours you aim to sleep. You can set your bedtime, wake-up time, and Sleep Focus.

You can find Sleep Schedule settings and sleep tracking in three main areas - the Sleep app on Apple smartwatch, the Health app on iPhone, and the Sleep section of the iPhone Apple smartwatch app.

As you approach bedtime, your Apple smartwatch prepares for sleep with a 'wind-down time', during which your watch screen dims and locks. At this point, your watch is in 'Sleep Focus' mode, and settings selected previously for Sleep Focus will be at play. During this mode, your watch alerts you if its battery is below 30% an hour prior to bedtime.

Sleep Tracking Results with Apple Watch

It gives you accurate sleep analysis (Image via Vecteezy)

Apple's sleep tracking results come in different bites. Initially, it focused on the time spent in bed. After the rollout of watchOS 9, the sleep tracking has begun yielding information on sleep stages. As a result, this has made sleep tracking with Apple Watch more beneficial.

To see your sleep tracking results, follow these steps:

Open the Health app on iPhone.
Select 'Browse'.
Tap 'Sleep'.

At this point, you'll see four tabs at the top: Day, Week, Month, and Six Months. Upon selecting the 'Day' tab, you'll see a sleep graph split into four - Awake, REM, Core, and Deep. At the graph's top, you'll see your 'Time in Bed', showing the time Sleep Focus was enabled, and 'Time Asleep', reflecting when the Apple Watch tracked you as asleep.

Tap 'Show More Sleep Data' to unlock a breakdown of the times in each of the four sleep stages. When you select the Week, Month, or Six Months tabs, you'll see the sleep stages grouped into a bar graph, revealing your sleep history within the selected time frame.

When it's all set and running, Apple Watch’s sleep tracking occurs automatically once Sleep Focus is on. So kick back, close your eyes, and let Apple Smartwatch work out the details. Not only will you awake refreshed, but you'll wake up to intriguing details about your sleep.