Though you could track your sleep patterns before, Apple hasn’t integrated these functions by default until watchOS7 and iOS 14. Although this feature does come in handy, it’s not impressive, at least for now. Hence, we thought of compiling two ways to track your sleep habits and patterns using the Apple Watch. The first one uses the native app, while in the second method, we explore a third-party app that gives a whole new meaning to sleep tracking. So, what are we waiting for? Let’s get started.
How to Track Sleep in the Apple Watch 5 Natively
As noted earlier, the Apple Watch 5 comes with its sleep tracking mechanism, but it’s fairly basic. You can just see your sleep schedule, highlights, and the average time slept. To view it, head over to the All Health data app on your iPhone and scroll down until you see the Sleep option. Tap on to view the data. And yeah, you can switch between the week view and the month view as well. As mentioned above, this data is very basic and doesn’t give you in-depth information. For instance, you can’t check your sleeping heartbeat or the quality of your sleep. If you want to dive deep into your sleep routines and patterns, naturally you will need an app more capable than the basic app. We tried quite a few iOS apps, and the one we discovered to work well and provide the right balance of features and settings is the one named AutoSleep. Download AutoSleep
How to Install AutoSleep on Apple Watch
AutoSleep is a feature-rich app that has a bunch of interesting features. Apart from tracking your sleep data, it also features a smart alarm and sleep bank, among others. Step 1: Once you have downloaded the app on your phone, open the Watch app, and scroll down until you see Available Apps. Once you locate AutoSleep, just tap on the Install button beside it, and the app will be installed on your watch in no time. One of the good things about AutoSleep is its simple and straightforward interface. Most of the options are displayed right on the home screen. And if you want to see detailed information, all you need to do is tap on the required option. Quite obviously, the app will need data for it to function properly.
How to Track Sleep on AutoSleep
For starters, the AutoSleep app shows a 12-hour and 24-hours view of your sleep pattern. Compared to the native counterpart, the presentation is more detailed. Apart from the amount of time you spent sleeping, you can also see the quality, sleeping heartbeat, and the amount of deep sleep. And the good news is you can track your day-time slumbers as well. To get a slightly deep insight, click on one of the four bubbles at the center, and all the information will be laid out in front of you. Apart from the details, what I especially like about this app is the subtle yet fluid animation. A tap further, and the app will show you your sleep report for the whole week, along with the 7-day trend. Plus, you can also check out the Sleep Hygiene option to get an overview of your past week’s sleeping pattern. Once you begin to wear the watch to bed more often, you will see the rings at the top encircled in green, showing your past sleep patterns. Just tap on the circles to see all the information laid out in front of you. And it doesn’t end there. AutoSleep has a feature which it calls Sleep Bank. You can set the number of average hours of sleep through Settings. And when you sleep more than the stipulated time, your bank will show a surplus data. However, if you are someone like me who sleeps less, the bank will show a deficit. The mantra here is to maintain the right balance so that the bank doesn’t show a zero-rating. In short, the app shows you a detailed insight into your sleep, be it the amount of light sleep, restfulness, and deep sleep. Apart from that, the app has plenty of options to explore. We mention three of the interesting ones below.
Additional Features
1. Keep a Check on the Environmental Noise
Environmental noise often has a disastrous impact on our sleep and our body when left unchecked for long. If you often find yourself waking up in the middle of the night and suspect noise to be one of the issues, this app can help you find the culprit. Head over to the sleep session for that particular night and scroll down. Here, you will see a handy chart for Environmental Noise. If it’s on the higher side, you know what to do.
2. Smart Alarm
The smart alarm of the AutoSleep app lets you avoid groggy mornings by letting you wake up at just the right time. It gives you a 30-minute window for when you want to be woken up and buzzes the alarm when your sleep is the lightest. This way, you wake up fresh, and the odds are that you will have a less groggy morning and afternoon. The only thing you need to ensure is that the watch needs to stay charged.
3. Lights Off
Another interesting feature of the app is the Lights Off feature. This one measures the amount of time it requires you to fall asleep. All you need to do is tap on the option on your watch, and the app and the watch sensors will do the rest of the job.
Sleep Like a Baby
The trick here is not to obsess over the data, but to strike the right balance to achieve all your goals. After all, you do not want to lose sleep over over-analyzing your sleep data, right? At the end of the day (oops night), make sure to wear a comfortable watch strap while sleeping. While rugged and armored straps protect the watch, they are not comfortable to sleep in since the hard edges may disturb your sleep even further. Next up: Looking for a strong and sturdy cable for your iPhone? Check out the article below to discover the best-braided lighting cables for your iPhone
