Apple Watch Series 4 Sleep Tracking

[CreepyAF]

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

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%.

there's something to be said about ur conclusion, going from 99% to 100% is much longer than from a lower percentage, like say from 30% to 31%. i think "topping off" the battery requires more energy than what's proportionate percentage wise found at lower battery levels.

this is all a theory, however, no science behind it.

 

[tromboneaholic]

there's something to be said about ur conclusion, going from 99% to 100% is much longer than from a lower percentage, like say from 30% to 31%. i think "topping off" the battery requires more energy than what's proportionate percentage wise found at lower battery levels.

this is all a theory, however, no science behind it.

Obviously seeing it happen over 2 full battery cycles isn't a complete scientific study, but I tried to keep everything consistent every night. Brightness was the same, the phone was on my nightstand, apps were force quit, and theater mode, DND, and mute were turned on.

I know it's for completely different reasons, but it reminds me of how I can drive forever until the fuel gauge in my car gets to 50%, and then it starts dropping twice as fast.

 

[staggerlee41]

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%

This is very interesting, thanks for posting your results. What's going to be interesting is learning how the battery life reacts this week after you let it bleed out over the weekend.


Here is a summary of week 1 for me.

AW 4 44mm Battery Notes:
Settings: Disable Detect Gym Equipment, raise to wake off, raise to speak, sounds off, when I could remember apps were force quit. Using AutoSleep and SleepWatch

Watch is charged to 100% at some point before going to bed.

• Day 1: 92% upon wake 9 hours 15 min standby
• Day 2: 84% upon wake, 13 hours 21 min standby
• Day 3: 94% upon wake 8 hours 33 min standby
• Day 4: 88% upon wake 14 hours 21 min standby
• Day 5: 94% upon wake 9 hours 5 min standby
• Day 6: 94% upon wake 7 hours, 26 min standby
• Day 7: 91% upon wake 9 hours 50 min standby

This seems to be very consistent if not improved from what I experienced with Series 2, though that is a recollection at this point.

 

[tromboneaholic]

AW 4 44mm Battery Notes:
Settings: Disable Detect Gym Equipment, raise to wake off, sounds off, when I could remember apps were force quit. Using AutoSleep and SleepWatch

I believe our settings are fairly similar, but I have raise to wake on. I don't think I mentioned it in this thread, but I have raise to speak off. I had brightness set to max last week, but this morning I dropped it down to the middle setting.

 

[ipaddaro]

what if autosleep is installed on iphone but not on AW? would it get data of movement, heartrate etc from the watch and calculate sleep in the same way he does when istalled on AW?

i wonder if it is necessary to have it on the watch... (provided that you wear the AW during night)

 

[BlueMoon63]

what if autosleep is installed on iphone but not on AW? would it get data of movement, heartrate etc from the watch and calculate sleep in the same way he does when istalled on AW?

i wonder if it is necessary to have it on the watch... (provided that you wear the AW during night)

Yes, it works. This is how I have it. AutoSleep is not installed on the watch and I am surprised how accurate it is for tracking when I fall to sleep. If I get up to use the bathroom, it shows that wake up and time.

I don’t think any of these are perfect. When I wake up to use the bathroom, it often shows me awake for 15 minutes when in reality it might be 5 minutes.

 

[tromboneaholic]

what if autosleep is installed on iphone but not on AW? would it get data of movement, heartrate etc from the watch and calculate sleep in the same way he does when istalled on AW?

i wonder if it is necessary to have it on the watch... (provided that you wear the AW during night)

After reading some of the comments from @staggerlee41 I learned that it seems like the watch app is not needed. You just need to wear the watch while sleeping and have the app on your iPhone. The app on the phone will use the data from Health.

I have not been running the app lately, and making sure to force quit it if it's open.

It seems like the only need for the app is to check the sleep stats on your Watch, but it doesn't seem to record any additional data the watch doesn't already record.

 

[ipaddaro]

Yes, it works. This is how I have it. AutoSleep is not installed on the watch and I am surprised how accurate it is for tracking when I fall to sleep. If I get up to use the bathroom, it shows that wake up and time.

I don’t think any of these are perfect. When I wake up to use the bathroom, it often shows me awake for 15 minutes when in reality it might be 5 minutes.

thank you! just wondering if this would improve battery life of the AW. i would set airplane mode on AW, and in the morning hopefully the autosleep app on the iphone will calculate the sleep time when iphone connects to the AW
[doublepost=1540854160][/doublepost]but why apple didn’ make a sleep app/traking on health data without needing a 3rd party app? at the end is the AW and apple software that does everything..

 

[tromboneaholic]

but why apple didn’ make a sleep app/traking on health data without needing a 3rd party app? at the end is the AW and apple software that does everything..

I have thought about this too, and I can think of a couple of reasons (that are just guesses obviously).

First, even though I can get 2 or 3 days between charges with my uses, officially Apple says the watch lasts 18 hours on a charge. If you go by that number, it's not ideal for sleep tracking. Making an Apple sleep tracking app would imply it can be worn all day and all night, but Apple isn't ready to officially say the battery life is that good (even though it actually is for most people I think).

Second, Apple's software team probably wanted to prioritize software development for the Watch in areas that would set it apart from other smartwatches. They might have looked at other sleep tracking software and decided they weren't ready to do something better yet, so they put those resources into developing the Health app that other third-party apps can use for all kinds of things, like sleep tracking.

Also, third party apps all seem to calculate the different stages of sleep differently using the same data, so Apple might be conducting it's own sleep studies with the watch to see how accurate an Apple sleep tracking app can be. Maybe they will develop software with different metrics, or we will have sleep rings to close at night along with activity rings during the day...

That's what I think, but I might be completely wrong, of course!

 

[Knight3]

I agree with you on the last part there. Unlike third-party apps that build their apps on mere rational logics, Apple actually conducts studies that requires thousands of hours of sleep data just like they did with ECG this year. And when you focus on too many things at once like ECG and Sleep Tracking and other stuff all at once, it just adds to the complexity. Apple's motto is "do it right, or don't do it all, even if it means you're years behind your competition". I'm fairly certain they're working on Sleep tracking for the next Watch and it'd probably require supporting hardware for better analysis which'd be included in the next generation Watch.

Also, if they included the two most life-changing features in the same generation, they'd have to look elsewhere for the next ground-breaking tech for next year. They're most always late to the game but they do it right.

 

[rwilliams]

I’ve deleted my sleep tracking apps. They’re nice, but I didn’t find the data to be all that useful in the long run. Plus I decided that I didn’t want to track every aspect of my life. Now let’s see if battery life improves at all.

 

[Fthree]

So I’m about to down load auto sleep. Any tips for me getting it up and running smooth before my 930 bedtime? Lol

 

[ipaddaro]

I have thought about this too, and I can think of a couple of reasons (that are just guesses obviously).

First, even though I can get 2 or 3 days between charges with my uses, officially Apple says the watch lasts 18 hours on a charge. If you go by that number, it's not ideal for sleep tracking. Making an Apple sleep tracking app would imply it can be worn all day and all night, but Apple isn't ready to officially say the battery life is that good (even though it actually is for most people I think).

Second, Apple's software team probably wanted to prioritize software development for the Watch in areas that would set it apart from other smartwatches. They might have looked at other sleep tracking software and decided they weren't ready to do something better yet, so they put those resources into developing the Health app that other third-party apps can use for all kinds of things, like sleep tracking.

Also, third party apps all seem to calculate the different stages of sleep differently using the same data, so Apple might be conducting it's own sleep studies with the watch to see how accurate an Apple sleep tracking app can be. Maybe they will develop software with different metrics, or we will have sleep rings to close at night along with activity rings during the day...

That's what I think, but I might be completely wrong, of course!

your thoughts make sense to me

 

[AVBeatMan]

Installed Sleep Watch but it says there’s no data? It’s installed on my watch. What am I doing wrong? Auto Sleep still getting data?

 

[ipaddaro]

Installed Sleep Watch but it says there’s no data? It’s installed on my watch. What am I doing wrong? Auto Sleep still getting data?

the same happened to me with autoslepp, i got in touch with support. the procedure to fix the problem was:

- uninstall the app from the AW
- then reboot the iphone (not jus turn off and on, but soft reset with the two buttons depending on iphone model, until you see apple logo)
- then (not at the same time of the iphone, but only when it has complely restarted) reboot the AW (pushing both buttons waiting for apple logo to display)
- wait 5 minutes and then reinstall the app on the watch.

hope i remember it correctly. this fixed autosleep sync problems for me (it displayed "no data" on the watch, but was doing fine on iphone), don't know if this can be applied to all apps that don't sync.

 

[honglong1976]

I’ve deleted my sleep tracking apps. They’re nice, but I didn’t find the data to be all that useful in the long run. Plus I decided that I didn’t want to track every aspect of my life. Now let’s see if battery life improves at all.

Same here, I will wait till Apple implement it (which they will but who knows when).

 

[AVBeatMan]

the same happened to me with autoslepp, i got in touch with support. the procedure to fix the problem was:

- uninstall the app from the AW
- then reboot the iphone (not jus turn off and on, but soft reset with the two buttons depending on iphone model, until you see apple logo)
- then (not at the same time of the iphone, but only when it has complely restarted) reboot the AW (pushing both buttons waiting for apple logo to display)
- wait 5 minutes and then reinstall the app on the watch.

hope i remember it correctly. this fixed autosleep sync problems for me (it displayed "no data" on the watch, but was doing fine on iphone), don't know if this can be applied to all apps that don't sync.

Thanks for the reply. Seems like too much hassle to be honest. Might just delete the app and stay with AutoSleep

 

[tromboneaholic]

I’ve deleted my sleep tracking apps. They’re nice, but I didn’t find the data to be all that useful in the long run. Plus I decided that I didn’t want to track every aspect of my life. Now let’s see if battery life improves at all.

I recently learned you don't need to run some sleep tracking apps themselves on the Watch (AutoSleep for example). The AutoSleep app on the iPhone calculates sleep from the data in Health the watch normally collects.

For example, I tracked my sleep last night:

I went to bed with 100%, force quit all apps, and after 8 hours I was at 95%.

It will be interesting to see if WatchOS 5.1 brings any changes today that affect battery life.

 

[staggerlee41]

I made a change and have DND enabled and when I checked this morning I had 94% after 8 hours and 27 min of standby.

I'm going to consider either removing SleepWatch from Watch all together and leave it on iPhone or at the very least disabling background refresh--though I'm not sure it's having much of an impact on battery life.

Another thought. WiFi--My understanding is Watch communicates with iPhone through Bluetooth primarily and WiFi secondarily if iPhone is out of range. Is this accurate? Would turning off WiFi have any impact on battery life or does it hibernate until Watch and iPhone are out of bluetooth range?

 

[tromboneaholic]

I made a change and have DND enabled and when I checked this morning I had 94% after 8 hours and 27 min of standby.

I'm going to consider either removing SleepWatch from Watch all together and leave it on iPhone or at the very least disabling background refresh--though I'm not sure it's having much of an impact on battery life.

That seems pretty close to my usage from a a full charge.
I do think DND helps overnight to reduce battery drain, although I haven't really tested it on vs off. It seems like background app refresh off could possibly help if you have lots of complications on your watch face.

Another thought. WiFi--My understanding is Watch communicates with iPhone through Bluetooth primarily and WiFi secondarily if iPhone is out of range. Is this accurate? Would turning off WiFi have any impact on battery life or does it hibernate until Watch and iPhone are out of bluetooth range?

That's how I've read it works. Actually, I read a couple of posts from people who were trying to get the watch to use Wi-Fi sooner when the watch was on the edge of the usable Bluetooth range. The watch definitely seems to prefer Bluetooth to the watch over Wi-Fi. I don't think turning it off could hurt, and it's easily done from the control center now.

 

[staggerlee41]

I think DND can certainly help but that depends on the # of alerts you would receive during that period. Think emails, texts, calls, reminders, etc. The more you have, the more audio and or haptic feedback you would receive.

I'm going to leave WiFi enabled because I don't think it's having a negative impact on me since I keep my phone and Watch in a close proximity the majority of the time and when sleeping.

I have an email in to SleepWatch Support asking them about what impact Background Refresh on Watch has on functionality and battery life, once I hear back I'll report my findings.

By the way for anyone using it and looking for more info, this is a good place to start.

https://sleepwatch.zendesk.com/hc/en-us

 

[tromboneaholic]

I think DND can certainly help but that depends on the # of alerts you would receive during that period. Think emails, texts, calls, reminders, etc. The more you have, the more audio and or haptic feedback you would receive.

I'm going to leave WiFi enabled because I don't think it's having a negative impact on me since I keep my phone and Watch in a close proximity the majority of the time and when sleeping.

I have an email in to SleepWatch Support asking them about what impact Background Refresh on Watch has on functionality and battery life, once I hear back I'll report my findings.

By the way for anyone using it and looking for more info, this is a good place to start.

https://sleepwatch.zendesk.com/hc/en-us

I have DND scheduled at night on my iPhone, especially because I have a Google Voice number for business that is forwarded to my iPhone. Out of habit, I set DND on the watch manually before going to bed, but in my case it's probably overkill...

 

[AVBeatMan]

I got the Apple Link Bracelet today. Does anyone use this in bed over night?

 

[tromboneaholic]

I got the Apple Link Bracelet today. Does anyone use this in bed over night?

I have a third-party link band, and I find the sport bands to be more comfortable for sleep. I’ve been thinking of wearing the sport loop that came with my watch.

I personally don’t mind changing the bands out when I do wear the link band or a leather band, but I’m sure some people just leave the same band on for a while.

 

[joeblough]

with regard to overnight battery drain - i've worn series 0 watches to bed in the past and while i don't remember the specifics, the theater mode in series 0 has a huge (positive) effect on battery life. like the difference between 12 hours of runtime and 20 hours when running during the day in normal mode vs. theater mode.

my series 3 nike would regularly drop only 10% overnight wih DND and theater mode turned on. that one's battery life seems very linear. somehow the series 3 LTE that my dad handed down to me has much worse battery life even using it identically to the nike watch, and the battery drain seems very nonlinear - takes forever to move down to 90% but once the watch hits 80%, it can be down at 20% after just 10 hours.

so i think maybe there's just a lot of variability in battery capacity with these things?