How to Use Your Apple Watch to Detect Sleep Apnea

One of the most exciting additions to the Apple Watch was the Apple Watch 10's larger screen during this year's annual iPhone launch event. But one of the most useful advances in tech for the watches itself is by far the new sleep apnea detection feature. Available as of September 2024, it's not just for the latest and greatest Apple Watch; the new feature will work on existing Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 models as well via WatchOS 11. It may very well be a game-changer when it comes to improving your sleep health and hygiene. 

The apnea detection feature comes with the approval of the US Food and Drug Administration, so it's high time you switched over and started using it, whether you already know you have sleep apnea or you're looking to discover whether it may be a problem or not. 

The sleep apnea detection feature uses the accelerometer to detect breathing interruptions at night, and will deliver the possible interruption results as watch notifications.

The sleep apnea detection feature uses the accelerometer to detect breathing interruptions while you sleep. 

Apple/Screenshot by CNET

Apple's move in sleep apnea mirrors Samsung, which already has its own apnea detection feature for its watches.

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Not needing a new watch to diagnose possible sleep apnea is a pleasant plus, although I'm also curious how helpful and accurate the feature will be. As someone with sleep apnea who also uses a CPAP, I had to get a sleep study to determine the severity of my own apnea along with a pulmonologist. Apple's detection feature is a great way to prod someone who might not have thought about apnea to go see a sleep doctor (I did it because of my high blood pressure). Apnea's not always a symptom you know you have, but it does require wearing the Apple Watch to bed -- something I don't often do, and many others don't either.

Still, it's one of the biggest new health features Apple has debuted in a while, and it could be just as impactful as atrial fibrillation and high heart rate notifications, but for a different class of medical concern. Stay tuned for CNET's deeper review and testing of the sleep apnea feature in the future.

For more, read up on everything your sleep tracker can reveal about your health and whether your smartwatch is as good as an at-home sleep test. 

The sleep apnea detection feature will share results to your Apple Watch.

Apple/Screenshot by James Martin/CNET