After owning the same Apple Watch for six years, I was recently persuaded to upgrade to a newer model—partly because newer versions simply have more features, partly because I’m curious about my bodily processes, and partly because I’m an impulsive spender who believes that every new purchase will bring me to the brink of pure wellness. In the week since I’ve had my new, fancy thing, I haven’t become the picture of perfect health, but I have gained some insight into my activity levels and, more importantly, my sleep habits. I’m a big believer in over-preparing for luxurious slumber sessions, so I wanted to see if the data my watch was collecting from my body throughout the night supported my assertion that a better night’s sleep is possible by investing in things like fancy pillow spray and silky-soft sheets.
How to set up Apple Watch sleep tracking guide and tutorial
The Apple Watches you get these days come preinstalled with a sleep app that estimates the amount of time you spend in REM, core, and deep sleep, provided you're wearing your device when you crawl under the covers. It's important to note that you do have to define your sleep schedule in the app in advance for this to work; it doesn't necessarily magically detect that you've gone to bed. I set mine to 1:00 AM to 8:30 AM after some internal debate about whether to lie to it (which would be pointless) or be honest about what kind of person I am and when I actually go to bed. In order to get any data from the watch, you also need to give it at least four hours of sleep per night to work with. You can set separate schedules for weekdays, weekends, or other days when you have special requirements or schedules.
When you wake up each day, the watch will recognize that you are awake and "at work" and will stop monitoring your sleep. You will then see a small chart that estimates how long you were in each sleep stage. Sleep stages are defined as follows:
REM is the phase in which you dream the most
