Apple Watch Series 10 gains sleep apnea detection – and it could save your life

During Apple’s recent ‘Glowtime’ event, the tech giant revealed the Apple Watch Series 10 and went through the device’s many features; one of which is potentially life-saving. The new wearable can detect whether or not you have sleep apnea. A recent leak clued us into the feature although details about it were scarce. But now, we have a good idea of how it’ll work.

Also: Everything Apple announced at its ‘Glowtime’ event: AI features, AirPods, Apple Watch Series 10, more

Sleep apnea is a condition where people can momentarily stop breathing while they sleep, “preventing the body from getting enough oxygen.” Untreated cases can lead to serious health problems including an “increased risk of hypertension [to] cardiac issues.” The worst cases could result in death.

Apple has implemented “Breathing Disturbances” on the smartwatch. This new metric harnesses the device’s accelerometer to “detect small movements [in] the wrist associated with” respiratory interruptions during sleep. The Apple Watch 10 analyzes this data, and if it detects you have “moderate to severe sleep apnea,” it’ll suggest speaking with a medical professional. You can share this information with your doctors by exporting a PDF.

The feature won’t be available on the Apple Watch 10 at launch. It is currently awaiting approval from the United States FDA (Food and Drug Administration) and other global health authorities. When it gets the green light, the detection will be available in over 150 countries.

We were first tipped off to this feature in a Bloomberg report by notable insider Mark Gurman. Much was unknown at the time, leaving a lot of information up for speculation. People wondered if it detected blood oxygen saturation; however, that was unlikely because of Apple’s legal troubles with health tech company Masimo. A federal judge told Apple it couldn’t sell smartwatches with blood oxygen sensors, and the company was forced to disable them via a software patch.

Apple got around those limitations with the accelerometer. This development makes it unlikely that blood-oxygen sensing will return to the wearables.

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The company also didn’t mention anything about high blood pressure detection on the Apple Watch, which has been in development since at least 2022. The feature might be getting delayed again. Gurman in his report stated that development on the tool is “no longer in the cards for an immediate release.”