Starting today, Apple Watch can notify users in Canada of moderate to severe sleep apnea. Apple secured a Medical Device License from Health Canada for this new feature.
Sleep apnea is a condition where breathing stops repeatedly during sleep. It affects over one billion people worldwide and often goes undiagnosed. Untreated sleep apnea raises the risk of high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, and heart problems.
The feature uses the watch’s accelerometer to track small wrist movements linked to breathing interruptions. Apple calls this new metric “Breathing Disturbances.” While some disturbances are normal, frequent events over several nights may signal sleep apnea.
Users can view their nightly Breathing Disturbances in the Health app on iPhone and iPad. The data is marked as “elevated” or “not elevated” and can be reviewed over one-month, six-month, or one-year periods.
Every 30 days, the watch analyzes the data. If it detects consistent signs of moderate to severe sleep apnea, the user gets a notification. The alert shows when the episodes occurred and includes educational materials. It also offers a PDF report with three months of data and details to share with a healthcare provider.
Apple developed the sleep apnea algorithm using advanced machine learning and a large dataset of clinical sleep tests. The feature was validated in a major clinical study, where every participant flagged by the algorithm had at least mild sleep apnea.
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