Your Apple Watch could help you uncover hidden sleep apnea
Sleep apnea notifications come to Apple Watch, further expanding its capabilities as an intelligent guardian for users’ health.
Using an innovative new Breathing Disturbances metric, sleep apnea notifications come to Apple Watch, adding to the many ways Apple Watch acts as an intelligent guardian for users’ health. The sleep apnea notifications has received marketing authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and other authorizations from other global health authorities are expected soon, with availability this month in more than 150 countries and regions, including the U.S., the EU, and Japan.
You can view your nightly breathing disturbance data in the Health app on your iPhone, where it will be categorized as either “elevated” or “not elevated.” The watch analyzes this data over a 30-day period and notifies users if it detects consistent signs of sleep apnea.
In clinical validation studies, the notification performance achieved a sensitivity of 66.3% and specificity of 98.5%. This means that while the algorithm is effective at identifying those with moderate to severe sleep apnea, it also minimizes false positives, ensuring that you can trust the notifications you receive.
This new feature has the potential to significantly impact public health by helping identify undiagnosed cases of sleep apnea. Research suggests that up to 80% of sleep apnea cases remain undiagnosed, making this tool invaluable for many people who may not exhibit obvious symptoms.
MacDailyNews Note: Here’s how to turn on sleep apnea notifications:
On your iPhone, open the Health app.
Tap Browse, then tap Respiratory.
Under Sleep Apnea Notifications, tap Set Up, then tap Next.
Confirm your Date of Birth and if you’ve ever been diagnosed with sleep apnea, then tap Continue.
Tap Next, then tap Done.
To view your sleep apnea notifications or breathing disturbances:
On your iPhone, open the Health app.
Tap Browse, then tap Respiratory.
Tap either Sleep Apnea Notifications or Breathing Disturbances.
You can view your breathing disturbances for the past month, 6 months, or year.
If you receive a notification, you can also share a detailed report with your healthcare provider. To share a PDF, scroll down and tap Export PDF.
If you believe you have sleep apnea, talk to your doctor.
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