Apple is stepping up its game when it comes to health tracking, and the next big thing? Sleep apnea detection on the Apple Watch. This new feature is headed to the Apple Watch Series 9, the newly unveiled Series 10, and the Apple Watch Ultra 2, as announced during their product event on Monday.
So, what’s the deal with sleep apnea? It’s a condition where your breathing stops and starts while you sleep—something most people don’t even realize is happening until they’re exhausted during the day or their partner complains about loud snoring. Tech companies have been toying with ways to track this disorder for a while now. Samsung already got the green light from the FDA for sleep apnea tracking on its Galaxy Watch earlier this year. Now, Apple’s getting into the mix with its own approach.
Apple’s method revolves around the accelerometer, a tiny sensor already used in Apple Watches to detect motion. Now, it’s being repurposed to monitor something Apple’s calling “breathing disturbances.” Basically, it tracks irregularities in your breathing while you sleep and provides you with a nightly summary of how things went. All of this data will be conveniently accessible in the Health app on your iPhone, which is where you can also keep an eye on your other health metrics.
Of course, Apple’s not stopping there. They’re pushing to get FDA approval for this sleep apnea detection feature, and they’re planning to roll it out globally—over 150 countries and regions. Apple is pretty confident in the tech too, boasting that the study backing this feature was “unprecedented” in size when it comes to sleep apnea detection. If it gets the green light, Apple’s take on sleep apnea tracking could be a real game-changer.
In the coming months, it’ll be interesting to see how this plays out and how many Apple Watch users find out they’ve been dealing with undiagnosed sleep apnea all along.
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