How can I record naps outside a sleep window with Apple Watch or iPhone?

This question was asked by Dr. Cathy Goldstein, MD, MS, and Yu Fang, MSE:

"We are concerned that when tracking sleep with the Apple Watch, the sleep-wake classifier is only deployed within the selected sleep schedule (set within HealthKit and a pain to change on the fly to adapt to your actual attempted sleep period) so sleep outside of that window is not captured."

Tags mobiletech apple-watch sleep-research
Asked by Cathy Goldstein on Fri 8/18/23 11:12 AM
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Answers (2)

This answer has been marked as the accepted answer
Gabriel Mongefranco Fri 8/18/23 11:16 AM Last edited Tue 8/22/23 2:09 AM

Apple does not currently capture sleep outside of "Sleep Focus", which is automatically turned on and off during the user's pre-set sleep window. The quickest solution is to ask users to manually turn on Sleep Focus when they are about to fall asleep, and turn it off when they wake up.

This is an imperfect solution, but it maybe help researchers continue using Apple Watch and HealthKit to track sleep.

For more information, see Apple Watch is only recording sleep within a set sleep schedule.

 

1 of 1 users found this helpful.
Nicole Eyrich Wed 1/31/24 10:06 AM

As Gabriel mentioned, it is possible with some effort from the participant's side. Another alternative is to use a third party app that automatically captures sleep outside of their pre-set window. Autosleep is one app that tracks naps automatically and is fully integrated with Apple's native sleep app; however, it is not free in the Apple App Store. 

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