Apple Watch will add support for native sleep tracking with watchOS 7, pairing it with new features like Wind Down on iPhone and iOS 14. In new post-WWDC interviews, Apple Vice President of Technology Kevin Lynch offered more details on the strategy behind the implementation of the sleep monitoring company with Apple Watch.
Speaking to the IndependentLynch explained that Apple spent “a lot of time learning about sleep science” before adding sleep tracking to Apple Watch. The goal of Apple’s implementation is simply to help people sleep and avoid distractions before bedtime:
Lynch explains that the focus is: “It really is about getting enough sleep and the main thing is the difficulty of lying down. There are so many things in the world that distract us and occupy our attention. Supporting people in managing that transition is where the magic is. “
One of the differentiators between Apple Watch’s native sleep tracking app and third-party apps is the amount of data presented to users. Many third-party apps offer details on things like deep sleep and sleep stages, but the Apple app forgoes that strategy:
“In our tests, what we discovered is that it is very difficult to understand what is happening in your brain from a device that does not read the electrical signals from your brain,” explains Lynch. “In any of these adventures that we follow by building things here, we ask what will make the difference for people that, from a general perspective, will be easy, useful and enriching.”
In a separate interview with CNETLynch explained a bit more about the tests Apple did before concluding that duration is the most important sleep data point to track:
“Even in our studies, we had people use EEGs on their heads, so we got information about the electrical activity in their brains, as well as what we can feel on the wrist with Apple Watch,” says Lynch. “And we’ve learned a lot about how the main thing here is really about duration.”
Lynch also said Apple wants to avoid causing people anxiety about the amount of sleep they get, but instead of recognizing when goals are reached:
“There could be anxiety that people have about going to sleep, and that anxiety itself can cause more problems in terms of going to sleep,” says Lynch. “Many people are already aware that they have not had enough sleep and therefore we are not adding to that, but we are positively acknowledging when they have achieved their goals.”
And, of course, Lynch emphasized that privacy is at the forefront of Apple’s sleep tracking implementation, unlike some of the competition.
Companies like Fitbit have used anonymous user data for years to study demographic sleep patterns and improve observations about sleep, but Apple doesn’t plan to do that. Instead, Apple has been building its machine learning models from data collected through internal studies.
“And that takes a long time. So we’ve been working on this for a while, “says Lynch. “We treat the data that is collected on a user’s device with a high level of sensitivity regarding privacy. … Apple is not seeing your sleep data. “
For more information on Apple Watch sleep tracking with watchOS 7, see our full how-to guide. If you want to start sleep tracking without installing the beta on your Apple Watch, there are a variety of third-party apps worth trying.
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