Photo Credit: by Marek Levak, Pexels.com
Everyone gets excited about the yearly Apple announcements, and this year, the tech company released more health tools than ever. Apple unveiled new health features alongside the release of the Apple Watch Series 10 and the Apple Watch Ultra 2, taking the health-tracking capabilities of these popular wearables to a whole new level.
One of the main medical conditions the new watches can address is a condition called sleep apnea, which impacts 1 billion people around the world, though many don’t even know they have it.
According to Apple, “The condition is estimated to impact more than 1 billion people worldwide, and in most cases, goes undiagnosed. If left untreated, it can have important health consequences over time, including increased risk of hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and cardiac issues.”
The new watches come with advanced sleep-tracking functionality, which has the potential to help detect sleep apnea, but it has its limits. In this article, we’ll look closer at sleep apnea and how wearing the new Apple Watch to bed may steer you to faster diagnosis and treatment.
What is sleep apnea?
Sleep apnea is characterized by interruptions in breathing during sleep. This common sleep disorder causes breathing to stop or become too shallow while sleeping repeatedly.
As the Mayo Clinic explains, “Sleep apnea is a potentially serious sleep disorder in which breathing repeatedly stops and starts. You might have sleep apnea if you snore loudly and feel tired even after a full night’s sleep.”
Mayo Clinic also notes: “The main types of sleep apnea are:
● Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), which is the more common form that occurs when throat muscles relax and block the flow of air into the lungs
● Central sleep apnea (CSA), which occurs when the brain doesn't send proper signals to the muscles that control breathing
● Treatment-emergent central sleep apnea, also known as complex sleep apnea, which happens when someone has OSA … that converts to CSA when receiving therapy for OSA”
Symptoms of sleep apnea can include:
● Loud snoring
● Episodes in which you stop breathing during sleep (reported by another person)
● Gasping for air during sleep
● Waking up with a dry mouth
● Morning headache
● Difficulty staying asleep (insomnia)
● Excessive daytime sleepiness (hypersomnia)
● Difficulty paying attention while awake
● Irritability
Do you need several cups of coffee to get going in the morning, even after a whole night of rest?
You may think you’re getting a whole night of sleep, but if it’s broken up and disturbed by sleep apnea, the truth is that the quality of sleep may be poor and even affect your health. Dealing with sleep apnea is no minor issue. Untreated sleep apnea is a severe medical condition.
The hidden danger of sleep apnea
Why does sleep apnea matter? As if the above symptoms aren’t unpleasant enough to live with, sleep apnea can lead to severe health problems if left untreated, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cognitive impairments.
Sufferers may face daytime fatigue (have you ever fallen asleep at your job?), high blood pressure or heart problems, a higher risk of type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and liver issues, including a higher likelihood of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. It can also lead to more complications from prescription medications or surgeries.
Your sleep apnea may even ruin your partner’s sleep and cause secondhand harm to the people around you! And as anyone who has ever had a stormy night of sleep can tell you, it can affect your mental health as well.
Traditionally, sleep studies have been the main way to diagnose sleep apnea. But now, with Apple Watch’s new features, there’s a more accessible and convenient way to help users recognize the signs of sleep apnea and take the necessary steps toward treatment, which could include sleep drugs like diphenhydramine or more natural remedies like melatonin.
Sleep tracking: a new era of sleep health
While sleep studies have been the primary way to diagnose sleep apnea in the past, these days, our wearable tech is getting smarter and wiser and may be able to help doctors out.
Did you know that it even got FDA approval? TechCrunch reports, “The U.S. Food and Drug Administration … published approval for sleep apnea detection on the Apple Watch Series 9, Series 10, and Watch Ultra 2 … four days ahead of the Series 10’s September 20 release date. … Once enabled, it requires 10 nights of sleep tracking data spread out over 30 days to determine whether a user may have the condition. During that time, it also offers insights into nightly sleeping disturbances, utilizing the on-board accelerometer.”
The latest Apple Watch models have enhanced sensors and algorithms that give users more precise sleep stage detection. Building on earlier models, Apple has fine-tuned its sleep-tracking technology to monitor subtle changes in heart rate, blood oxygen levels, and breathing patterns, which can offer more detailed insights into sleep quality.
The ability to detect irregularities in these metrics could signal potential sleep apnea. By capturing abnormalities such as breathing pauses or oxygen saturation fluctuations, the watch can alert users to seek medical advice, potentially leading to earlier diagnosis.
This feature is particularly beneficial for the millions who suffer from sleep apnea unknowingly, as the symptoms can be subtle and often only noticeable by a partner, if at all.
There’s also a new noise monitoring feature, which can detect disruptive environmental sounds like snoring (often a sign of sleep apnea) or external noise, affecting sleep continuity. Identifying whether your sleep issues are environmental or physiological is essential in finding proper treatment.
By incorporating machine learning, the Apple Watch is better at analyzing sleep stages—light, deep, and REM sleep—to give users a more holistic view of their sleep patterns. This detailed data helps users and healthcare providers understand sleep disturbances that may correlate with sleep apnea episodes.
Taking this data to your doctor could be an essential first step in seeking treatment and avoiding the potential dangers of sleep apnea.
Who can benefit from wearing the new Apple Watch?
Sleep apnea sufferers aren’t the only ones who may benefit from the new Apple Watch's sleep features.
Think about it: The watch’s advanced heart rate monitoring and stress tracking can also help users identify how daily stressors may impact sleep. For example, if you ran a marathon or your heart rate was elevated all day by nerves before a big presentation, it may come as no surprise when your sleep pays the price.
People with Insomnia can track their sleep stages and identify disruptions, helping them improve their habits. Shift workers, whose sleep schedules are often erratic, can use the watch’s data to optimize sleep and wake times.
Athletes are also a significant demographic that can benefit from knowing more about their sleep. Monitoring the impact of sleep on recovery and performance can provide extremely valuable insights into optimizing training, recovery, and hitting your goals healthily.
The Apple Watch may benefit children because parents may find value in using it to monitor their children’s sleep patterns. Kids suffering from sleep issues may fly under the radar, but the Apple Watch could help this.
The limitations of Apple Watch’s sleep apnea detection
Of course, while the new Apple Watch features are impressive, the accuracy of its sleep apnea detection powers remains under scrutiny. After all, it’s the latest technology so that it won’t be perfect. It’s better to think of it as a helpful tool or early warning system rather than able to replace the advice of a qualified medical professional.
One limitation is that Apple’s sleep-tracking features rely on optical sensors and heart rate variability data to estimate breathing irregularities. While helpful, these measures are not yet designed to replace clinical sleep studies, which remain the gold standard for diagnosing sleep apnea.
Still, it can be a helpful tool to point you in that direction. Apple Watch is convenient, consistent, and requires no particular setup. But until the Apple Watch is as accurate as polysomnography (the technology used in sleep labs), you’ll need to consult a physician for an official sleep apnea diagnosis and treatment.
For now, the Apple Watch can help you notice patterns that require medical follow-up, leading to earlier interventions and ultimately reducing the long-term health impacts of untreated sleep apnea. But it cannot replace the insight and experience of a licensed doctor!
While the sleep apnea detection feature is not yet a replacement for traditional sleep studies, for the millions or even billions of undiagnosed sleep apnea sufferers around the world, the Apple Watch could be a life-changing tool for taking control of sleep health.
What medical condition do you wish Apple Watch could address next?
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