Sleep App Totally Inaccurate

[Sawday]

One of the drivers for me getting an Apple Watch (new this week as a 25 Wedding Anniversary present) was the Sleep App as I suffer from terrible insomnia. First night with the watch and it records my being awake for just 54 minutes, when I was absolutely awake from 3:30 until rising at 07:30 while the app records me bing in core sleep for much of that time. This rather defeats the object of the sleep app and doesn't exactly provide accurate information to show my GP. Is this typical - has Appl sold us a lemon? Are there more accurate sleep apps out there?

 

[Lifeisabeach]

The watch doesn't KNOW when you are actually sleeping. To do that, it would require hooking up EEG leads to your head. It can only guess. The sleep feature is largely a reminder set of when to go to bed and when to get up. The Watch, if worn while sleeping, I believe should be able to add extra data like if you get out of bed. But if you are awake and just laying there in bed, well forget it. It won't know. It has no way of knowing. And there is no app to fix this. Think about. Just how would they KNOW you are sleeping? Again... short of hooking up EEGs leads to your skull, it can't happen.

 

[lclev]

I found the sleep app useless. I will admit I do not like sleeping with my watch on so I have only tried it a few times. That said - I noticed it recorded me sleeping 9 hours 40 minutes last night - while it was sitting on it's charger! Now there is no data on type of sleep - REM, Core , Deep, or Awake. But the last time I wore it to sleep it did record those areas although how accurate I can't say as - I was asleep!

I guess I figure if I am awake then I am aware. It is more of a curiosity to me than a useful tool.

Lisa

 

[MacInWin]

I think what it measures includes heart rate and movement. So if you lie there very quietly, your heart rate goes down and movement stops, so it thinks you are asleep. There isn't much more it can measure, other than heart rate variation (HRV) and maybe Sp02. That said, I use an app called AutoSleep that seems to be relatively accurate. You can calibrate it for how YOU sleep, at least as you perceive it, so that it gives you an assessment of your night compared to your typical night. No absolutes, so nothing for a doctor. If your GP needs true sleep analysis, you will have to go to a sleep lab to get wired up.

 

[ferrarr]

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[pm-r]

One of the drivers for me getting an Apple Watch (new this week as a 25 Wedding Anniversary present) was the Sleep App as I suffer from terrible insomnia.

I would strongly suggest starting over again, but try a different direction and a new search such as this:

suffer from terrible insomnia. - Google Search

Lack of proper body sleep can be a very serious issue health-wise and can actually be a killer, where the body can actually go weeks without food or water, it can only go a matter of hours normally without proper adequate sleep.




- Patrick
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[Raz0rEdge]

Sleep detection is bad across all devices. These devices can only operate on what they can measure. They can measure your heart rate to tell you if your rhythm is good or bad. They can measure SPO2 to tell you things.

However, there's nothing to measure from a sleep perspective that's available to these devices. So they use the lack of motion or movement to indicate that you are asleep. So if you're just laying in bed awake but not moving, your heart is going to be low and with no movement, you obviously must be sleeping.

****, if a person saw you in that state, they'd assume you were sleeping unless they asked you.

The Apple Watch is a much better companion to the iPhone for a lot of other things. It's decent for fitness tracking and prompting, but for somethings (and rightly so) it's not a good device. If you bought the device just for what it does poorly, you can hardly blame the device.

If your insomnia is serious and not transient, you should seek out medical help from a sleep lab.

 

[tilt]

My case is funny - it said I was in bed for 7 hours and asleep for 7:45 of those

 

[pm-r]

My case is funny - it said I was in bed for 7 hours and asleep for 7:45 of those

Maybe it's including the time your wife was speaking to you before you got into bed to go to sleep...




- Patrick
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[Whoopie]

It also tracks sleep during the day when you are not in bed. If you sit very still and meditate it may count it as sleep.

 

[Raz0rEdge]

...kinda like what I said above isn't it?

 

[Rod]

Calibration is essential and yes, there are a few good sleep apps out there such as Pillow and SleepWatch Premium but both require subscriptions and a lot of fine tuning. They sync with the Apple Heath app and measure things like snoring, body temp, heart rate and movement.