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Tracking sleep in iOS/watchOS

 

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I have central sleep apnea, for which I sleep using an “ASV” (automated servo-ventilation) machine. Recently, for no reason other than “I can,” I started using the iOS and watchOS “Health” apps to track my sleep stages (light, deep, and REM), but it seems I must MANUALLY activate the “Sleep” app on my watch in order for that to work. Is that how it should be? Both watchOS and iOS are current. My phone is a 14Pro and my watch is a Series 7 (GPS + Cellular). If I don’t do that, my phone shows interrupted blocks of time all in turquoise color and DRAMATICALLY overstates my sleep time, including even times when I’m up and walking around.

Has anyone else tried using this? It seems bizarrely inaccurate (again, unless the last thing I do when getting into bed is to MANUALLY ?trigger the “Sleep” app on my watch.
--?
Jim Robertson

 

I don't have an Apple Watch, so I don't have any experience with tracking sleep in the Health app. I did find the following articles that may, or may not, be applicable:

Estimating Sleep Stages from Apple Watch


Track your sleep on Apple Watch and use Sleep on iPhone


Discussion in Apple Communities re iOS 18 affecting sleep tracking. Specifically, see Sonar's and Cosmos1179's comments...

On Mar 25, 2025, at 12:57?PM, jimrobertson via groups.io <jimrobertson@...> wrote:

I have central sleep apnea, for which I sleep using an “ASV” (automated servo-ventilation) machine. Recently, for no reason other than “I can,” I started using the iOS and watchOS “Health” apps to track my sleep stages (light, deep, and REM), but it seems I must MANUALLY activate the “Sleep” app on my watch in order for that to work. Is that how it should be? Both watchOS and iOS are current. My phone is a 14Pro and my watch is a Series 7 (GPS + Cellular). If I don’t do that, my phone shows interrupted blocks of time all in turquoise color and DRAMATICALLY overstates my sleep time, including even times when I’m up and walking around.

Has anyone else tried using this? It seems bizarrely inaccurate (again, unless the last thing I do when getting into bed is to MANUALLY trigger the “Sleep” app on my watch.
--
Bev in TX
 

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Jim Robertson?wrote:
I have central sleep apnea, for which I sleep using an “ASV” (automated servo-ventilation) machine. Recently, for no reason other than “I can,” I started using the iOS and watchOS “Health” apps to track my sleep stages (light, deep, and REM), but it seems I must MANUALLY activate the “Sleep” app on my watch in order for that to work. Is that how it should be?

Both watchOS and iOS are current. My phone is a 14Pro and my watch is a Series 7 (GPS + Cellular). If I don’t do that, my phone shows interrupted blocks of time all in turquoise color and DRAMATICALLY overstates my sleep time, including even times when I’m up and walking around.

Has anyone else tried using this? It seems bizarrely inaccurate (again, unless the last thing I do when getting into bed is to MANUALLY ?trigger the “Sleep” app on my watch.

For several years I have had morning discomfort in my back if I sleep, as I have most of my life, on my side, and if I lay flat on my back in bed, I *will* have obstructive sleep apnea.

My solution has been to sleep in my La-Z-Boy recliner, with my head elevated in the 30-45° range. I may snore occasionally, but this seems to work to prevent OSA for me.

I wear my Apple Watch nearly every night, and often check my sleep analysis in the Health App in the morning after I get up – or after the last sleep period after the last time I got up to void…

I not uncommonly take a nap in the late afternoon.

Here is a typical display for me:
Sleep Analysis.jpeg

The undifferentiated section on the left is my daytime nap (on the 24th), While the differentiated bulk of the display is my overnight sleep (starting around 2 AM).

I’m currently on a original Ultra watch (since October 2022), but I was doing this with its predecessor as well.

Under Settings / Focus I have Sleep Focus set with a time schedule (in my case, 1AM to 9AM). Maybe that is what you need to do.
Or, on the watch, open that Sleep App, and scroll down until you get to “schedule”…

--?
Jim Saklad
jimdoc@...
Jim logo small.jpg

 

I have an old Apple Watch that has the “SleepWatch” App loaded on it. It works seamlessly and I only have to put the watch on before I go to bed. It’s a subscription app but my Apple Watch is quite old without some of the more modern features. ?
 

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On Mar 25, 2025, at 2:51?PM, Bev in TX via groups.io <countryone77@...> wrote:

I don't have an Apple Watch, so I don't have any experience with tracking sleep in the Health app. ?I did find the following articles that may, or may not, be applicable:

Thanks SO much for that, Bev. I’ve confirmed to my own satisfaction that sleep tracking requires nightly “activation” of the Sleep app ON MY WATCH, which is the one thing that surprises me, but I don’t know whether the watchOS has a user interface that permits the user to tell what apps ON the watch are currently running.

The support group thread is pretty bizarre, with people complaining about Apple requiring people to buy a watch in order to track sleep. I’m amazed that those users think their phones can track their sleep while sitting in their chargers with no sensors activated on their bodies!

--?
Jim Robertson

 

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Perhaps the following Apple Support article will help:

On Mar 26, 2025, at 12:32?PM, jimrobertson via groups.io <jimrobertson@...> wrote:

I’ve confirmed to my own satisfaction that sleep tracking requires nightly “activation” of the Sleep app ON MY WATCH, which is the one thing that surprises me, but I don’t know whether the watchOS has a user interface that permits the user to tell what apps ON the watch are currently running.

--
Bev in TX
 

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On Mar 27, 2025, at 7:22?AM, Bev in TX via groups.io <countryone77@...> wrote:

Perhaps the following Apple Support article will help:

That DID help a bit, but also to me indicated that this part of the watch’s user interface is a horrid mess. If I double-click on the digital crown, a reduced-size image of the currently foreground “app” appears on the screen, identified solely by its app icon, and the display reverts to a list of ALL apps if I do nothing within the next few seconds. If I DO “swipe left” repetitively, ultimately I get to a screen that reports “recently used apps appear here,” but it’s still unclear whether that is actually a list of OPEN apps, or whether they self-terminate if memory requirements demand it, or WHY it is that I must MANUALLY activate the watch’s “Sleep” app each night in order to have it guess my sleep stages (I’ve NEVER purposefully terminated it. I checked my Watch Settings on my phone, and they don’t seem to require manual launching of the Watch’s “Sleep” app).

--?
Jim Robertson

 

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Jim Robertson wrote:
… or WHY it is that I must MANUALLY activate the watch’s “Sleep” app each night in order to have it guess my sleep stages (I’ve NEVER purposefully terminated it. I checked my Watch Settings on my phone, and they don’t seem to require manual launching of the Watch’s “Sleep” app).

I am guessing that it is because you haven’t set up anything AUTOMATIC.
Did you try my suggestion from March 25th?

I’m currently on a original Ultra watch (since October 2022), but I was doing this with its predecessor as well.

Under Settings / Focus [on the iPhone] I have Sleep Focus set with a time schedule (in my case, 1AM to 9AM). Maybe that is what you need to do.

Or, on the watch, open that Sleep App, and scroll down until you get to “schedule”…

Start the sleep schedule a little before you actually usually go to sleep, and end it a little after you usually get up. If you nap outside those limits (e.g., afternoon) it will note the ties but not analyze the details.

--?
Jim Saklad
jimdoc@...
Jim logo small.jpg

 

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On Mar 27, 2025, at 9:33?AM, Jim Saklad via groups.io <jimdoc@...> wrote:

Start the sleep schedule a little before you actually usually go to sleep, and end it a little after you usually get up. If you nap outside those limits (e.g., afternoon) it will note the ties but not analyze the details.

I’ve done that, which is WHY I stated that I think I’ve done everything I’m supposed to do, but my schedule DOES explain why my occasional afternoon naps get recorded in pastel blue rectangular blocks.

--?
Jim Robertson

 

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On Mar 27, 2025, at 9:33?AM, Jim Saklad via groups.io <jimdoc@...> wrote:

Start the sleep schedule a little before you actually usually go to sleep, and end it a little after you usually get up. If you nap outside those limits (e.g., afternoon) it will note the ties but not analyze the details.

I remain puzzled about this. What I’m doing each evening involves putting my watch on the charger each evening, then back on my wrist when I’m ready to go to sleep, AND making sure I log in to the watch then. After convincing myself that I made reasonably accurate recordings if I manually activate the watch’s “sleep” app when retiring, last night I put the watch on, entered its passkey, but did NOT manually trigger the watch’s “Sleep” app, but it still recorded stages that made sense to me. It’s possible that I haven’t always had the watch on my wrist at the beginning of my programmed sleep “schedule,” so I’ll track (and perhaps actually TEST that.

--?
Jim Robertson

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