Along with adding sleep apnea detection to watchOS 11, Apple was able to get FDA approval to add this feature to three Apple Watch models. Apple’s new health feature will be added to Apple Watch Series 10, Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2.
Apple
Sleep apnea is a disorder due to which breathing is interrupted during sleep. Although the interruptions in breathing are very short, they disrupt sleep and endanger the physical and mental health of a person. Obstructive sleep apnea is one of the common types of this disease that causes throat muscles to contract and block the flow of air into the lungs.
To diagnose sleep apnea, the patient must spend a night in a sleep clinic with various instruments. Another diagnostic method is to use special devices during the night to record the patient’s condition. Apple Watch uses a built-in accelerometer to detect movements that indicate irregular sleep.
Apple says about sleep apnea: “This common disease prevents oxygen intake and affects more than 1 billion people worldwide; In most cases, it is not even recognized. “If this disease is not treated, it increases the risk of developing high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, and heart problems.”
The detection of breathing disorders is one of the new innovations of the Apple Watch, which uses an accelerometer to detect small movements in the wrist that occur with interruptions in normal breathing patterns during sleep.
Every 30 days, Apple Watch analyzes the data related to breathing disorders, and if it shows consistent symptoms of moderate or severe sleep apnea, it informs the user that they should see their doctor for diagnosis and treatment.
Users can see any type of irregularity in breathing during the night through the Health application. The respiratory status of users is classified into two categories, more than usual and normal, and they can check them in one-month, six-month and one-year periods.
Educational articles are included in the Health app to help users learn more about sleep apnea. The sleep apnea notification algorithm was developed using advanced machine learning and extensive data sets from sleep apnea clinical trials. This capability was also confirmed in clinical studies, and every participant identified by the algorithm had at least mild sleep apnea.
Users who use Apple Watches equipped with sleep apnea detection can access a PDF containing information related to their sleep apnea status.
