I have insomnia. How would sleep tracking help me?

[The Cockney Rebel]

I hardly get any sleep.

Maybe a couple of hours, with medication, if I’m lucky.

How would sleep tracking help me?

Also, does it auto recognise sleep, now, and record that?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Night Spring]

Will sleep tracking help? I don't know. If you are seeing a doctor, and you are able to show them your sleep data, they might find that useful in considering treatment. It might give you insight into correlation between your daily activities and how you sleep. Or it might not. 🤷‍♀️

And yes, with watchOS 11, it's supposed to auto recognize sleep. It's rather hit and miss with daytime naps, but it is pretty solid about recording regular nighttime sleep.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Aren't you quitting Apple Watch for the Santos De Cartier?

And since you already have an Apple Watch, don't you already know if it can do anything for insomnia or not? This opening post reads like you are thinking about buying an Apple Watch and looking for rationale to pull the trigger. The other thread seems to say you are giving up on AW and moving to the Cartier.

As #2 offers, show your Doctor your AW sleep data and see if that helps them do anything for you. If not, you probably have your answer from the most relevant expert.

 

[The Cockney Rebel]

Will sleep tracking help? I don't know. If you are seeing a doctor, and you are able to show them your sleep data, they might find that useful in considering treatment. It might give you insight into correlation between your daily activities and how you sleep. Or it might not. 🤷‍♀️

And yes, with watchOS 11, it's supposed to auto recognize sleep. It's rather hit and miss with daytime naps, but it is pretty solid about recording regular nighttime sleep.

Many thanks, for the detailed reply.

I’m pretty sure you use it for sleep tracking?

I suppose it would be interesting to see just how much sleep I do get?

Thanks again.

 

[The Cockney Rebel]

Aren't you quitting Apple Watch for the Santos De Cartier?

And since you already have an Apple Watch, don't you already know if it can do anything for insomnia or not? This opening post reads like you are thinking about buying an Apple Watch and looking for rationale to pull the trigger. The other thread seems to say you are giving up on AW and moving to the Cartier.

As #2 offers, show your Doctor your AW sleep data and see if that helps them do anything for you. If not, you probably have your answer from the most relevant expert.

Maybe I am, may I’m not.

What’s the problem?

 

[Howard2k]

It may stress you out instead. You won't know until you try unfortunately.

Best thing to do it just give it a shot and see. I would wear the watch to sleep for a week or two and not even bother looking at the sleep stats, just let it baseline for a couple of weeks and then from there see if there's ways you can improve.

 

[The Cockney Rebel]

It may stress you out instead. You won't know until you try unfortunately.

Best thing to do it just give it a shot and see. I would wear the watch to sleep for a week or two and not even bother looking at the sleep stats, just let it baseline for a couple of weeks and then from there see if there's ways you can improve.

Cheers, H.

 

[Night Spring]

Many thanks, for the detailed reply.

I’m pretty sure you use it for sleep tracking?

I suppose it would be interesting to see just how much sleep I do get?

Thanks again.

I do use it. My bed times vary, but once I fall asleep, my sleep patterns are pretty much the same from day to day, so it's just something I glance at, and get a satisfaction like, "all normal." It's also interesting to see how much of different kinds of sleep I got during the night (core, deep, and REM), and how many times I "woke up" -- usually in bits of less than a minute. But as @Howard2k said, it could also stress you if you obsess over it. So hard to say if it will benefit you or not.

 

[goldmac2006]

Will sleep tracking help? I don't know. If you are seeing a doctor, and you are able to show them your sleep data, they might find that useful in considering treatment. It might give you insight into correlation between your daily activities and how you sleep. Or it might not. 🤷‍♀️

And yes, with watchOS 11, it's supposed to auto recognize sleep. It's rather hit and miss with daytime naps, but it is pretty solid about recording regular nighttime sleep.

Hey everyone! So, I’ve noticed that my sleep tracking in watchOS 11.x gets automatically tracked when I sleep in on weekends, even if it’s a beta or public/RC version. But if you’re dozing off early and forget to change your sleep schedule for the next night, here’s a handy Siri Shortcut I found on YouTube that can automate your sleep tracking with just a tap of a button:

Sleep Tracking ð

I’ve made a few modifications to it, like turning on both my Apple Watch and iPhone in silent mode, and adding my own apps. But feel free to customize it with your own apps if you prefer. Just give it a try and let me know if it works for you! 😊

 

[Night Spring]

Hey everyone! So, I’ve noticed that my sleep tracking in watchOS 11.x gets automatically tracked when I sleep in on weekends, even if it’s a beta or public/RC version. But if you’re dozing off early and forget to change your sleep schedule for the next night, here’s a handy Siri Shortcut I found on YouTube that can automate your sleep tracking with just a tap of a button:

Sleep Tracking ð

I’ve made a few modifications to it, like turning on both my Apple Watch and iPhone in silent mode, and adding my own apps. But feel free to customize it with your own apps if you prefer. Just give it a try and let me know if it works for you! 😊

Haven't checked out this shortcut yet, but not sure why you need this. The times I fell asleep earlier than my sleep time, watchOS 11 recorded my sleep from when I fell asleep, even though it started before my sleep schedule kicked in.

Also, if you fall asleep without meaning to, you wouldn't be able to run this shortcut either, right?

 

[jz0309]

I hardly get any sleep.

Maybe a couple of hours, with medication, if I’m lucky.

How would sleep tracking help me?

Also, does it auto recognise sleep, now, and record that?

Thanks in advance.

Sleep tracking provides data. How will you use that data?
Have you talked to your doctor about this?
I’m no medical expert but from what I read about insomnia is that it varies a lot by individual and personal situation, and that there is no common “solution”.
As others have said, sleep tracking doesn’t hurt but be cautious about the data.
Give it a try but do talk to your doctor.

 

[The Cockney Rebel]

Sleep tracking provides data. How will you use that data?
Have you talked to your doctor about this?
I’m no medical expert but from what I read about insomnia is that it varies a lot by individual and personal situation, and that there is no common “solution”.
As others have said, sleep tracking doesn’t hurt but be cautious about the data.
Give it a try but do talk to your doctor.

Thanks, buddy.

One of the reasons for me not sleeping, is because I stopped most of my psychiatric medication.

I can’t tell my doctor this, as I will be sectioned again.

That’s why I posted on here, to see how people use the function.

Thanks for your reply.

 

[The Cockney Rebel]

Haven't checked out this shortcut yet, but not sure why you need this. The times I fell asleep earlier than my sleep time, watchOS 11 recorded my sleep from when I fell asleep, even though it started before my sleep schedule kicked in.

Also, if you fall asleep without meaning to, you wouldn't be able to run this shortcut either, right?

This is why it wouldn’t work for me.

 

[The Cockney Rebel]

Hey everyone! So, I’ve noticed that my sleep tracking in watchOS 11.x gets automatically tracked when I sleep in on weekends, even if it’s a beta or public/RC version. But if you’re dozing off early and forget to change your sleep schedule for the next night, here’s a handy Siri Shortcut I found on YouTube that can automate your sleep tracking with just a tap of a button:

Sleep Tracking ð

I’ve made a few modifications to it, like turning on both my Apple Watch and iPhone in silent mode, and adding my own apps. But feel free to customize it with your own apps if you prefer. Just give it a try and let me know if it works for you! 😊

Thanks for getting involved, and offering some advice.

 

[Parowdy]

Maybe I am, may I’m not.

What’s the problem?

Maybe he finds it puzzling why you ask how AW sleep tracking might help you while you could have tried it already instead of starting a thread to make you feel good about switching to a different watch.
Because I do too.

 

[jz0309]

Thanks, buddy.

One of the reasons for me not sleeping, is because I stopped most of my psychiatric medication.

I can’t tell my doctor this, as I will be sectioned again.

That’s why I posted on here, to see how people use the function.

Thanks for your reply.

ok, gotcha.I will tell you this: I've been tracking my sleep for over 2 years now and I look at the data every morning, and honestly don't know what to do with that data. it is interesting for sure. I am a rather "regular" person meaning I go to sleep at the same time (give or take) and get up at the same times, some times I feel I slept great, sometimes not. While the data shows that sometimes but not necessarily all the time, I do not know how to use the data to improve my sleep. But, I am not going to worry about it.

Getting your Vitals data is also a nice to have, wrist temp and SpO2 over night is useful data, as well as sleep apnea detection.

 

[The Cockney Rebel]

ok, gotcha.I will tell you this: I've been tracking my sleep for over 2 years now and I look at the data every morning, and honestly don't know what to do with that data. it is interesting for sure. I am a rather "regular" person meaning I go to sleep at the same time (give or take) and get up at the same times, some times I feel I slept great, sometimes not. While the data shows that sometimes but not necessarily all the time, I do not know how to use the data to improve my sleep. But, I am not going to worry about it.

Getting your Vitals data is also a nice to have, wrist temp and SpO2 over night is useful data, as well as sleep apnea detection.

Cheers, bud.

Some very interesting information there.

I’m going to give it a go, because I’d like to know just how much sleep I am getting.

I think it’s just a couple of hours, so the results should be interesting.

Thanks again 👍🏼.

 

[goldmac2006]

Haven't checked out this shortcut yet, but not sure why you need this. The times I fell asleep earlier than my sleep time, watchOS 11 recorded my sleep from when I fell asleep, even though it started before my sleep schedule kicked in.

Also, if you fall asleep without meaning to, you wouldn't be able to run this shortcut either, right?

I’ve never experienced this before I doze off early, but it only happens when I sleep in. I did hop in bed early during my business trip as these eleven hour shifts left me exhausted, it didn’t track it down before the sleep focus kicked in. I set this shortcut on my Home Screen using Siri Shortcuts. You can create a board of all your shortcuts via the widget and use an action button menu shortcut from the same YouTuber who made the sleep tracking shortcut. If I have to doze off early and I’ve already done my wind-down routine, turned off the lights, and everything is set up, I just press the button and don’t have to switch between silent mode and sleep focus on both my devices.

As an iPhone 15 Pro user, I really appreciate the action button.

Thanks for getting involved, and offering some advice.

No problem. Add this Siri shortcut, program it to the action button on your iPhone, a watch face or on the Home Screen. Use a shortcut of your favorite sleep tracker app if there is one. Personally I prefer the one in iOS and watchOS so I just have it turn on sleep mode, silent mode 📵 both my watch and iPhone, and automatically open my fitness + app to select a sleep meditation timer. ⏲️

 

[Night Spring]

This is why it wouldn’t work for me.

You could try one of the 3rd party sleep tracking apps. They tend to catch irregular naps / sleep times better than the native watchOS system.

 

[Night Spring]

I just press the button and don’t have to switch between silent mode and sleep focus on both my devices.

Hmmm. I have all my devices on silent all the time, and when sleep focus comes on, it just turns on all my devices -- I think there's a setting somewhere to automatically share the focus mode on all devices.

Mapping the action button to a shortcut that turns on sleep focus is an interesting idea, I'd have to think about whether that's useful for my use case. Thanks.

 

[Night Spring]

One of the reasons for me not sleeping, is because I stopped most of my psychiatric medication.

Might be interesting if you could see the difference in your sleep patterns with and without your medications.

Am I right in thinking you stopped taking these meds because they have side-effects you don't like? Perhaps there are meds that help you sleep without those side-effects? Have you tried reducing your meds, instead of stopping all together?

 

[Night Spring]

but it only happens when I sleep in.

Yeah, if I wake up after the wake-up timer goes off, then fall back asleep, it doesn't track that. I have managed to sleep through the timer without waking up, and in those cases, I find that the sleep tracking sometimes continues until I turn off the timer. It just depends on if I "wake up" and for how long before I fall back asleep.

 

[ObsidianApple]

The Apple Watch tracks your sleep stages (light, deep, and REM) and provides insights into your sleep patterns
This data can help you identify habits or factors that might be affecting your sleep quality. Also the Apple Watch integrates with the Health app, allowing you to monitor other factors that might impact sleep, such as exercise and heart rate.

 

[klasma]

Sleep tracking alone won’t help you, and possibly even not at all. You might get better advice on https://www.reddit.com/r/insomnia/, https://www.reddit.com/r/sleepdisorders/, https://www.reddit.com/r/sleep/.

 

[goldmac2006]

You could try one of the 3rd party sleep tracking apps. They tend to catch irregular naps better than the native watchOS system.

Here’s one that I saw the YTer use but it requires a subscription but it’s popular… it’s sleep cycle. Watch the review here:

Hmmm. I have all my devices on silent all the time, and when sleep focus comes on, it just turns on all my devices -- I think there's a setting somewhere to automatically share the focus mode on all devices.

Mapping the action button to a shortcut that turns on sleep focus is an interesting idea, I'd have to think about whether that's useful for my use case. Thanks.

I have the focus modes that mirror my iPhone. Have you gotten an iPhone 15 Pro or iPhone 16 Pro yet? If you have these devices, you can also get an iPhone 16 or an Apple Watch Ultra, which also have action buttons.

This is the action button 2.0 shortcut that also comes with the sleep tracking shortcut I got and modified it:

Both Apple Watch Ultra and all iPhone 16 and 15 Pro users can try it out.