Apple Watch Series 4 Sleep Tracking

[ipaddaro]

Last night's battery update: 94% upon wake, 9 hours 5 min since last charge. I had all apps removed from the dock so in theory nothing should have been in use during that time.




I haven't identified which app gets logged in Apple Health but I can say I'm using AutoSleep and SleepWatch and they do not conflict with one another in terms of recording data to their respective iOS apps. I haven't compared the data in Health to ID which one gets recorded. I've looked at the Privacy>Health settings in iOS and both are set to write data to Health. So I suppose you could turn one off if you find one of them matches your perception of the truth better than the other.

@tromboneaholic thanks for your post and plowing ground with your experiment. I'll be curious to see the results!

so, if you are using 2 apps, and if the apps give you different (also slightly different results), which results are matched with the ones in the health app?

in health app it is reported a time of sleep/time spent in bed, i think that should be the same of one of the two apps... or different to both if health app in some way MERGES the data.

very curious! this may solve my doubt

thank you!

 

[staggerlee41]

so, if you are using 2 apps, and if the apps give you different (also slightly different results), which results are matched with the ones in the health app?

in health app it is reported a time of sleep/time spent in bed, i think that should be the same of one of the two apps... or different to both if health app in some way MERGES the data.

very curious! this may solve my doubt

thank you!

Ok I just did some digging and noted two different total sleep times for last night between AutoSleep and SleepWatch.

• AutoSleep records 8 hours, 26 min
• SleepWatch records 8 hours, 35 min
• Health shows 8 hours, 26 min--matching AutoSleep
• Both are set to write data to health.

AutoSleep was the one which I installed first, so it *seems* that iOS chooses the one that was installed first. That's the best I can interpret at this point. Again, you can make changes to which apps write data through Privacy>Health in iOS.

 

[ipaddaro]

Ok I just did some digging and noted two different total sleep times for last night between AutoSleep and SleepWatch.

• AutoSleep records 8 hours, 26 min
• SleepWatch records 8 hours, 35 min
• Health shows 8 hours, 26 min--matching AutoSleep
• Both are set to write data to health.

AutoSleep was the one which I installed first, so it *seems* that iOS chooses the one that was installed first. That's the best I can interpret at this point. Again, you can make changes to which apps write data through Privacy>Health in iOS.

thank you so much, it is just what i was asking for.

tonight, if i remember, i'll try to install and run several apps. then i'll let you know my results.

 

[ipaddaro]

tonight i tried with autosleep, pillow and sleepwatch with airplane mode on.

battery consumption: 16% in 9.30 hours (no work today)
sleep time: autosleep 7.54 h; pillow 7:49; sleepwatch 8:20. sleepwatch completely wrong... i spent some time awake during the night and in the morning and the first two seem correct.
health app: sync with pillow (actually shows 7:50h instead of 7:49, but the time stamps are in line with those ot pillow). please note that i have installed autosleep first.
time spent in bed: autosleep detected that i spend more than 30 min awake before getting out of bed because i can manually stop the session. such information is not detected by pillow.
other considerations: autosleep is constantly updated and works well with airplane mode, every time you open it form the watcn you see exactly time spent in bed, sleep time, deep sleep, heartrate etc. pillow seemed to give less information and to resume it at the end only. sleepwatch gives NO information with iphone not connected. maybe if you leave the connection on it can also be more accurate. it refreshes when you connect iphone in the morning, i think it only makes assumptions of sleep time by analyzing the heart rate data collected by the AW.

so, overall, autosleep won for my usage. i’ll take other tests in the next days. still can’t understand how health app decides to sync to one app instead of the other; in this case sync with pillow but lost information of the time that i spent awake in bed before getting up (information available in autosleep).
battery consumption seem not to be affected much by the number of sleep app you have open and running.

 

[tromboneaholic]

I had an interesting development last night.

I had 95% battery remaining after 7 hours and 15 minutes.

After letting my battery run down all the way yesterday, the watch charged to 100% in a couple of hours. I left it on the charger and put it on before bed. I force quit all the apps, but I forgot to launch AutoSleep and hit lights out.

This was the least amount of battery I've used over a 7-8 hour period, so I'm wondering if it was from calibrating my battery, or from just having no apps open (not even the sleep tracking app).

An interesting side note is that the sleep tracking seems more accurate without hitting "light out" in AutoSleep. AT least for me, it's been counting me as asleep when I'm lying in bed motionless in the morning, but today it showed I was awake for about 20 minutes that it normally would have counted as asleep.

 

[ipaddaro]

update: autosleep does not show any more time spent awake in the bed. so the results are more similar to those of pillow.
health app says: sleep time 7h 50m, but when i go the the bar graph it says 11h 25 min of sleep!!! i think too much app do confusion. i think i’ll uninstall all but autosleep...
[doublepost=1540635563][/doublepost]

I had an interesting development last night.

I had 95% battery remaining after 7 hours and 15 minutes.

After letting my battery run down all the way yesterday, the watch charged to 100% in a couple of hours. I left it on the charger and put it on before bed. I force quit all the apps, but I forgot to launch AutoSleep and hit lights out.

This was the least amount of battery I've used over a 7-8 hour period, so I'm wondering if it was from calibrating my battery, or from just having no apps open (not even the sleep tracking app).

An interesting side note is that the sleep tracking seems more accurate without hitting "light out" in AutoSleep. AT least for me, it's been counting me as asleep when I'm lying in bed motionless in the morning, but today it should I was awake for about 20 minutes that it normally would have counted as asleep.

very interesting... i’ll try not to hit light out tonight
[doublepost=1540636052][/doublepost]uninstalled pillow and sleepwatch, health data returned normal and sync to autosleep.

 

[Absrnd]

I’ve had a solid week of sleep tracking with Pillow, and got some nice data,
But I would like to make sense of all this data, can anybody recommend sites, that can explain the data, and I can get a feeling if my sleep cycle is avarage or not

Also with autoesleep on, I am not getting any audio data, does this only work when you manually use the app ?

 

[tromboneaholic]

But I would like to make sense of all this data, can anybody recommend sites, that can explain the data, and I can get a feeling if my sleep cycle is avarage or not

I don't know if this is the best one out there, but here's an article about how to use the data from sleep trackers:

https://www.wareable.com/fitness-trackers/sleep-monitors-explained-more-deep-sleep

The article is probably summed up by this line:
The secret, according to the professor, is "discovering the sleep that you personally need, and then making that your sleep pattern."

 

[staggerlee41]

Today's report is 94% after 7 hours 26 min since last charge.

I'd like to note that both AutoSleep and SleepWatch are very good about updates. AutoSleep sees more frequent updates. Support from both has been quite good.

I believe I've mentioned this before but may be worth mentioning again. I'm assuming that users with multiple Sleep tracking apps installed, Watch/Phone take the first one to use as the source data for Health but you can easily change which one is writing the data. I am set to have both write, although it picks one. I'm not sure there is any benefit/detriment to this approach.

I had an interesting development last night.

I had 95% battery remaining after 7 hours and 15 minutes.

After letting my battery run down all the way yesterday, the watch charged to 100% in a couple of hours. I left it on the charger and put it on before bed. I force quit all the apps, but I forgot to launch AutoSleep and hit lights out.

This was the least amount of battery I've used over a 7-8 hour period, so I'm wondering if it was from calibrating my battery, or from just having no apps open (not even the sleep tracking app).

An interesting side note is that the sleep tracking seems more accurate without hitting "light out" in AutoSleep. AT least for me, it's been counting me as asleep when I'm lying in bed motionless in the morning, but today it showed I was awake for about 20 minutes that it normally would have counted as asleep.

Interesting development indeed. I suppose further testing will help you narrow down whether or not the calibration had an impact on it.

Regarding opening the AutoSleep App, I have never done that from Day 1 and it's always been fairly accurate at knowing when I'm asleep, despite what my sleep start time was setup.

 

[tromboneaholic]

Regarding opening the AutoSleep App, I have never done that from Day 1 and it's always been fairly accurate at knowing when I'm asleep, despite what my sleep start time was setup.

I think I'm going to skip opening it and hitting "lights out" before bed. I don't really check the app on my watch in the middle of the night.

 

[tromboneaholic]

I wore the watch all day and went to bed with 62% and got up with 55% after 8 hours, for 7% battery usage over 8 hours.

I did force quit all apps, set theater mode, mute and do not disturb as usual

I didn't launch AutoSleep, and it seems to consume a little less battery while being at least as accurate if not more.

I'm not going to charge the watch today so I can compare the 3 nights in a row from before I calibrated the battery meter to after.

 

[AVBeatMan]

Can I ask a slightly different question and that is, what's the point of any sleep app? Don't get me wrong, I use Autosleep but find that if I "think" I've had a good sleep but it tells me I haven't it can actually make me feel worse! And the other way, if I feel really tired but it tells me I've had a good sleep it'll perk me up a bit.

I'm not sure what you get from sleep apps. I mean, if you have a poor night's sleep and it tells you you have, that doesn't make you sleep better the next night does it? I'm just wondering how sleep apps can improve your sleep?

 

[staggerlee41]

Can I ask a slightly different question and that is, what's the point of any sleep app? Don't get me wrong, I use Autosleep but find that if I "think" I've had a good sleep but it tells me I haven't it can actually make me feel worse! And the other way, if I feel really tired but it tells me I've had a good sleep it'll perk me up a bit.

I'm not sure what you get from sleep apps. I mean, if you have a poor night's sleep and it tells you you have, that doesn't make you sleep better the next night does it? I'm just wondering how sleep apps can improve your sleep?

What I get from it is hard data over time. I don't use to improve my sleep quality, I use it to show me patterns of my sleep cycle. I was getting a varied degree of hours of sleep per night--anywhere from 6-9 on average and what the sleep app has helped me with is to be more mindful of getting into a better sleep rhythm. Going to sleep at similar times and getting at least 8 hours as often as possible. Of course this can be done without an app but I like having the data.

As an aside, if I'm having difficulty falling asleep, I have a mediation app that I'll use to help clear my mind of thought and that almost always helps.

 

[AVBeatMan]

What I get from it is hard data over time. I don't use to improve my sleep quality, I use it to show me patterns of my sleep cycle. I was getting a varied degree of hours of sleep per night--anywhere from 6-9 on average and what the sleep app has helped me with is to be more mindful of getting into a better sleep rhythm. Going to sleep at similar times and getting at least 8 hours as often as possible. Of course this can be done without an app but I like having the data.

As an aside, if I'm having difficulty falling asleep, I have a mediation app that I'll use to help clear my mind of thought and that almost always helps.

That’s my main problem too, getting to sleep. Can you recommend the meditation app?

 

[CreepyAF]

That’s my main problem too, getting to sleep. Can you recommend the meditation app?

i think if u have a set bedtime and waketime, that will help with ur rhythm. also, exercising daily helps, though not too close to bedtime.

 

[staggerlee41]

That’s my main problem too, getting to sleep. Can you recommend the meditation app?

The one I'm using is called Meditation Studio. I use "Better sleep" be Emma Seppälä and that gets me where I need to be to fall asleep more often than not. If I have a lot on my mind, sometimes I need to listen to it more than once. Or if I wake up, I'll use it to fall asleep again.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/meditation-studio/id1066018502?mt=8

 

[ipaddaro]

if you turn off app refresh in background and don’t hit “lights off” manually... would autosleep work?

 

[tromboneaholic]

Can I ask a slightly different question and that is, what's the point of any sleep app? Don't get me wrong, I use Autosleep but find that if I "think" I've had a good sleep but it tells me I haven't it can actually make me feel worse! And the other way, if I feel really tired but it tells me I've had a good sleep it'll perk me up a bit.

I'm not sure what you get from sleep apps. I mean, if you have a poor night's sleep and it tells you you have, that doesn't make you sleep better the next night does it? I'm just wondering how sleep apps can improve your sleep?

Like @staggerlee41 posted, I think it's more useful over time than one night.

Also, if you change jobs, move, change diet, etc... you can look at the sleep data you've recorded and see how it compares.

Some mornings my wife and I use the sleep data just to compare and see who has the right to complain more about being tired!
[doublepost=1540759395][/doublepost]

if you turn off app refresh in background and don’t hit “lights off” manually... would autosleep work?

The past couple of nights I haven't even been running the app, and it's been fine. Looks like the app on the phone is what grabs the data from Health, so you don't even need the app on the watch. Just wearing the watch is enough.
[doublepost=1540759833][/doublepost]

The one I'm using is called Meditation Studio. I use "Better sleep" be Emma Seppälä and that gets me where I need to be to fall asleep more often than not. If I have a lot on my mind, sometimes I need to listen to it more than once. Or if I wake up, I'll use it to fall asleep again.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/meditation-studio/id1066018502?mt=8

I'm going to look into that. I tend to fall asleep quickly, but if I wake up, sometimes I can't get back to sleep.

 

[ipaddaro]

@trombonehaolic thanks for the feedback. but you have refresh in background on or off?

 

[tromboneaholic]

@trombonehaolic thanks for the feedback. but you have refresh in background on or off?

I have it on, but from what I understand the apps only refresh if they are running or they are a complication on the current watch face.

 

[ipaddaro]

I have it on, but from what I understand the apps only refresh if they are running or they are a complication on the current watch face.

ah ok. but i think that this is what happens when you turn it off, because in the settings it’s said that if you turn it off the app on face will continue to refresh... so there must be a difference when turned on

 

[ipaddaro]

tonight i disabled app refresh in background, no complications of watch face, airplane mode: autosleep recorded everything as usual without hitting lights off button.

lost 16% of battery in 8 hours.

 

[tromboneaholic]

tonight i disabled app refresh in background, no complications of watch face, airplane mode: autosleep recorded everything as usual without hitting lights off button.

lost 16% of battery in 8 hours.

That battery usages seems excessive.

Did you force quit all the apps? Even with background app refresh off, any open apps could still be running process that consume battery – especially third party apps.

Was your phone far away from the watch? Since the watch uses bluetooth to communicate with the phone, it will consume more energy the further away it is.

 

[ipaddaro]

That battery usages seems excessive.

Did you force quit all the apps? Even with background app refresh off, any open apps could still be running process that consume battery – especially third party apps.

Was your phone far away from the watch? Since the watch uses bluetooth to communicate with the phone, it will consume more energy the further away it is.

yes, everything was force quit, and the AW was in airplane mode.. so i don't think bluetooth was on. in any case iphone was 50 cm away i think.

to me too it seems quite a high battery drain.. but can't understand what is responsibile. maybe only the small battery of the 40 mm can justify this? or wrong % calculation of the AW itself.. maybe it's not 99% or so when it says it is...

with app refresh off i can't say a 3rd party app is responsible... considering also that i have installed only a few..

 

[tromboneaholic]

With today's update, I've come to a conclusion I didn't expect when I started.

I haven't charged the watch since Friday. I went to bed last night with 26% and after 7 hours had 16% for 10% usage over 7 hours.

After last night, I've come to the conclusion that the battery meter will drop more quickly the further away it is from 100% In other words, 100%-95% is the same amount of battery consumption as 25%-15%.

This past week, two times there were 3 consecutive nights where I did not charge the battery. Each night I used progressively more battery.

Full charge
Tuesday 7%
Wednesday 9%
Thursday 12%

Full charge
Friday 5%
Saturday 7%
Sunday 10%