Apple Dream Tracking Interview with Kevin Lynch

Apple fans have speculated for years about when the company’s smartwatch would start tracking sleep. Now it finally arrives with the next version of the Apple Watch software, WatchOS 7, and it’s a little different than what we’ve seen before.

Apple unveiled its sleep tracking features at WWDC, its developer conference, last week. But it is not a new area of ​​interest for the company. Kevin Lynch, Apple’s vice president in charge of Apple Watch software, told CNBC that the company has been extensively researching sleep technology for years.

“Some of these things are not obvious when you start working to sleep and it took us a while to get there,” he said.

Thanks to this research, Apple decided to focus its efforts on setting and achieving simple goals, rather than collecting and analyzing data on a user’s sleep habits. It may not be the right technology for those who are obsessed with data and track its phases, such as the number of hours that rapid eye movement sleep recorded. But sleep medicine experts, who are wary of arming consumers with too much information without enough context, told CNBC that it is one of the best approaches available.

Here’s how Apple’s sleep tracking technology works and why it stands out from the pack:

Some people love to track their health data in as detailed a way as possible. Some Fitbit devices and others offer a window to understand these various phases of sleep, including light sleep, deep sleep, and rapid eye movement sleep, using motion sensors and heart rate tracking.

But too much information can also create negative results. Experts recently coined a new condition called “orthosomnia,” which involves a person who cares so much about getting perfect sleep through wearable devices that develop sleep-related anxiety. That could make it hard for them to get a good night’s sleep.

Dr. Seema Khosla, Medical Director of the North Dakota Sleep Center, he has seen these patients in his clinic. Armed with data from portable devices, they have shared unfounded concerns about their quality and duration of sleep.

“I have had really excited patients,” he said in an interview with CNBC. “It got me thinking about the idea that we should be much more thoughtful about the data that we show.”

Lynch of Apple suggested that the information collected through smart watches about sleep is not always accurate. The company investigated all kinds of sleep tracking, including recording brain waves through an EEG, over the years, and determined that it is very difficult to measure “a complete picture of what is happening in the brain” with just a device worn on the wrist.

Also, Apple typically doesn’t like to give its users bad news, including that they’re not sleeping properly. Therefore, the company has provided very minimal data on sleep duration and quality. It is possible to see waking and sleeping periods, but not the most detailed information about sleep cycles.

Instead, Apple asks Apple Watch users to set a goal around the amount of sleep they’d like to sleep, and then pushes them to relax before going to bed.

Ultimately, Lynch said, it’s about taking advantage of user psychology.

“We wanted to be seen as a useful addition, rather than another source of frustration and anxiety,” he said. “We try to take the general ideas of what’s possible and refine it in the simplest possible way, and then try to simplify it a little bit more.”

Former Apple sleep czar Roy Raymann, who is now chief scientific officer for sleep technology company SleepScore Labs, agreed with that approach.

“In general, consumers are looking for tools to improve, not tools to measure,” he said. For example, Raymann said stepping on a bathroom scale will not help a person lose weight tomorrow. Likewise, overloading a person with data about their sleep hours with rapid eye movements may not help them sleep better.

“So [Apple] focused on measurement as a way to achieve sleep health goals, which is a holistic view that I support, “Raymann said.

One of the new features involves a setting called Wind Down, which is designed to help users go to bed earlier. The idea is for people to be able to set up a bedtime routine with their watch, including using a meditation app while the screen goes dark and notifications are muted.

In the morning, the Apple Watch has a silent vibrating alarm or can make quiet sounds to wake the user up slowly.

Apple’s Lynch said the company thought a lot about Wind Down because it received constant feedback from users that its biggest challenge was bedtime.

“So we looked at the techniques that we can use to help people in their transition to sleep,” he said. “It is a balance between supporting and remembering.”

Khosla said the feature reminds him of the kinds of things he will do manually for his own patients. It usually sets an alarm for them before bedtime, which means that all of their devices must be turned off. At that point, they stop scrolling through social media.

“I have had some patients who really liked that and even made it impossible to have functionality on their phones after a certain time,” he said.

Other sleep medicine experts said the Wind Down and tracking functions are helpful, but that an electronic device is not necessary to improve. Sometimes pencil and paper are enough.

Dr. Allan Mishra, a Stanford Health Care orthopedic surgeon who studies and educates students about sleep, said he liked the simplicity of Apple’s approach and the focus on positive reinforcement rather than metrics alone. But he recommends that his students discover sleep relaxation strategies that work for them, whether it’s exercising or meditating, and consider trying a pencil and paper dream journal.

“In my opinion, the best way to track sleep is a sleep journal and not an electronic device,” he said.