Do you wear an Apple Watch to bed? Learn how to set up and use Sleep mode on your Apple Watch to create schedules to hit your sleep goals, set up a time to Wind Down beforehand, track your sleep, and view your sleep and respiratory rate data.
Tracking your sleep with an Apple Watch helps see if you’re getting the amount of sleep you need each night. This data is also necessary to make use of the new watchOS 11 Vitals app that lets you view overnight health metrics.
Set up a sleep schedule on your Apple Watch
Once you configure Sleep on your iPhone and create a schedule, it syncs automatically to your Apple Watch and appears in the Sleep app on your wrist. So the easiest approach is to follow our linked tutorial and set up Sleep on your big iPhone screen.
However, if you want to set it up on your Apple Watch, you have the option to do that. Remember that this schedule will sync from your watch to your iPhone.
1) Open the Sleep app on your Apple Watch and swipe down to its last screen.
2) Tap either Bedtime or Wake Up, and it will take you to the same screen.
3) Now set the Wake Up time, Bedtime, Sleep Goal, and other options shown here. We’ve already explained these in our tutorial on setting Sleep on iPhone, but here’s a recap:
Next Wake Up Only:
This shows your wake up, alarm, and bedtime for the next time you go to bed and wake up. You can change the settings here without affecting your main sleep schedule (explained below). So, if your main sleep schedule alarm is set to wake you at 7 AM, but you think you need more sleep tonight, you can adjust your Next Wake Up Only alarm time to 7:30 AM.
- Wake Up: This is the time you want to assign as your morning wake up alarm time.
- Alarm: Turn it on to have a morning alarm. Your sleep will be tracked even if you turn it off, but then there will be no alarm to wake you up in the morning unless you set a normal alarm from the Alarms app on your watch or the Clock app on your iPhone.
- Sounds & Haptics: Pick a tone for your morning wake up alarm.
- Bedtime: This is the time you go to bed.
- Reset Schedule: This resets the changes you have made for your next wake up schedule and defaults it to your regular sleep schedule (mentioned below).
Sleep Schedule:
- This is the main default option for setting up wake up time, bedtime, and alarm for all your days. Tap Set Your First Schedule and add the information there.
- After you add your first schedule, you can optionally tap Add Schedule to add more schedules. This way, you can have one set of schedules for weekdays and one for weekends. You can also create different schedules for different days of the week.
- If a schedule does not work for you, you can delete it and create another.
Options:
- Sleep Goal: This is the number of hours you want to sleep each day. It defaults to 8 hours, but you can increase or decrease it accordingly.
- Wind Down: This is a small window that reduces distractions by cutting off app alerts and gives you time to relax and finish pending jobs so you can get to bed on the scheduled time.
Enable Sleep in Control Center
Even if you have a sleep schedule, there may be times when you want to enable Sleep mode outside of that schedule. Just like in your iPhone Control Center, you can turn on Sleep in your Apple Watch Control Center.
- Press the side button to open Control Center and tap the Focus (crescent moon) icon.
- Tap Sleep to activate it on your watch and your iPhone.
Change or add a sleep schedule
You can return to the Sleep app on your Apple Watch and tap the alarm icon from the top left or the current Bedtime and Wake Up time to make the changes.
- You can edit your next wake up settings or your everyday sleep schedule under the Next Wake Up Only and Full Schedule sections.
- If you want to add a new schedule, tap the Add Schedule button and choose the days for which you want this particular sleep schedule.
Customize your sleep settings on Apple Watch
You can tweak a few things to adjust your sleep options and have it work the way you like.
1) Open the Settings app on your Apple Watch.
2) Scroll down and tap Sleep.
3) Adjust the following options as needed:
Turn On at Wind Down: When Wind Down starts, Sleep Focus is activated automatically to cut the distractions. However, if you disable the switch for “Turn On at Wind Down,” it will not auto-activate the Sleep Focus. You can, of course, enable Sleep Focus from your iPhone or Apple Watch Control Center.
Sleep Screen: Simplifies the look of your Apple Watch and iPhone Lock Screen to reduce distractions.
Show Time: Displays the date and time during Sleep Focus on your watch and iPhone.
Sleep Tracking: This switch must be on so your Apple Watch can track your sleep and add the sleep data to the Health app on your iPhone. If you do not want to track your sleep, you can turn it off.
Charging Reminders: If your Apple Watch is not charged adequately (i.e., less than 30%), it will remind you to charge before Wind Down so it has enough juice to track your sleep and play the morning alarm. It also notifies you when your Apple Watch is fully charged.
Don’t Use This Watch for Sleep: Lastly, if you own another Apple Watch or sleep-tracking device and do not want to use this watch to track your sleep, you can use this option.
View your sleep data
You can see your recent sleep history in the Sleep app on your Apple Watch.
To see your entire sleep history, open the Health app on your iPhone and go to Browse > Sleep.
View your sleeping respiratory rate data
Breathing rate or respiration rate is the number of times you breathe in one minute. Breathing rate increases when your blood needs more oxygen. This typically happens when you workout or do intensive physical activities. Conversely, your breathing rate decreases when you are resting or sleeping.
Apple Watch can track your breathing rate when you are sleeping and log it to the Health app. You can see your sleeping respiratory rate data in the iPhone Health app > Browse > Respiratory > Respiratory Rate.
If you do not want your Apple Watch to measure this, open the Watch app on your iPhone and turn off Respiratory Rate from the Privacy section.
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