Many Canadians struggle with poor sleep quality, affecting their daily lives and health. Apple’s new sleep health features aim to change this, offering tools to detect potential sleep apnea.
These innovations could help millions of Canadians spot sleep issues early and seek proper care. While home-based sleep studies are already prevalent throughout many territories in Canada, Apple’s tech might reshape how we approach sleep health in Canada.
This also offers a fantastic opportunity to improve the detection of sleep apnea—a condition that is direly underreported, as many people with it simply don’t know they’re experiencing it.
With the prevalence of the Apple Watch, people who never knew they were experiencing sleep apnea might find a reason to consult with their primary care providers.
Overview of Apple’s New Sleep Health Features
Sleep Apnea Notifications
Apple Watch Series 9, Series 10, and Ultra 2 now offer Sleep Apnea Notifications.
This feature tracks breathing patterns and uses the accelerometer in the watch while you sleep to spot signs of sleep apnea.
If it sees trends that indicate possible apneic activity, it will notify the user and provide educational resources about sleep apnea.
Users can then review and monitor trends in their Apple Health data to determine whether they should speak with a professional. If they choose to do so, this data is in a format that is easily shared with many major healthcare portals and records systems.
This helps improve awareness of this often-overlooked condition and helps users bridge the gap between awareness and action, encouraging earlier intervention and, hopefully, more effective therapy outcomes.
It’s a potentially effective one-two punch.
Breathing Disturbances Metric
Apple’s new Breathing Disturbances metric tracks small wrist movements during sleep.
This feature uses the watch’s accelerometer to spot signs of breathing issues. After collecting data for 30 days, users can view their data in the Health app.
The app shows trends over one month, six months, or one year.
This tool received FDA clearance for sleep apnea detection but was not immediately available upon release of iOS 18 in Canada.
However, Apple cleared the regulatory hurdles required to unlock the feature for Canadian users in late October 2024.
Apple notes that the feature uses advanced machine learning and was tested and validated using large-scale clinical studies.
Vitals App Integration
The Vitals app now works with Apple’s new sleep health features as well.
Users can track their breathing patterns during sleep right in the Health app and then use the Vitals app to display clear, easy-to-understand graphs of nightly breathing disturbances, heart rate changes, REM sleep duration, and other key metrics to help them better understand their sleep quality.
Privacy remains a top priority in this integration.
Apple states that all health data stays encrypted on the device. Users have complete control over what they share and with whom.
They can even export specific data for medical visits without revealing their entire health history.
This secure approach lets people take charge of their sleep health while keeping their information safe.
It might also encourage people who are hesitant to use tracking or data collection features to do so, knowing they have full control over any discoveries that might be made and how they’re shared.
Impact of Sleep Apnea on Health
Risks Associated with Untreated Sleep Apnea
Untreated sleep apnea poses serious health risks.
This condition affects over 1 billion people worldwide, often without their knowledge. It can lead to high blood pressure, heart attacks, and strokes.
The lack of proper rest also causes daytime fatigue and various forms of physical discomfort, ranging from headaches and body aches to sore throats.
These make everyday living hard and reduce quality of life.
Ignoring sleep apnea can result in more severe issues over time. People with this disorder face higher chances of developing hypertension, Type 2 diabetes, and heart problems.
Early detection and treatment are crucial to avoiding these long-term risks.
Catching it early allows for timely treatment, including the prescription of PAP therapy, lifestyle changes, and other approaches, which can prevent these issues from developing further and potentially alleviate them entirely.
Apple’s new features aim to make sleep health monitoring more accessible.
With easier access to this information, more Canadians may take action to protect their health before problems arise.
How Apple’s Features Could Change Sleep Health in Canada
Accessibility of Sleep Health Technology
Apple’s new sleep health features bring cutting-edge tech to Canadians. After 30 days of data collection, they provide alerts about moderate-to-severe sleep apnea concerns.
While this isn’t as quick as an in-home or lab-based sleep study, it’s potentially far more accessible.
Since an Apple Watch doesn’t require a prescription and has value beyond detecting apnea, it will likely make sleep health monitoring more accessible.
It will likely bring apnea concerns to users’ attention, who might never have suspected the condition.
Combined with activity tracking, fitness features, and other health metrics tracking, the new sleep health features in the Apple Watch could help improve the overall health of many Canadians.
Integration with Canadian Health Services
While specific support has yet to be announced or determined, there is a good chance that if your family care provider can use your Apple Health data for other metrics or you can sync your data with your patient health portal, your Sleep Health data will integrate seamlessly.
Although this will not replace in-home or lab-based studies as a gold-standard diagnosis method, and the data will not replace the data reported from a CPAP machine, this data could provide yet another glimpse into patients’ sleep habits and health, providing doctors and specialists with yet another method to optimize therapy and achieve results.
Final Thoughts
Apple’s new sleep health features could reshape how Canadians monitor their rest.
The Apple Watch’s sleep apnea alerts offer easy access to vital health data without needing a prescription or the inconvenience of an in-depth sleep study.
While incapable of diagnosing sleep apnea, these tools may lead to earlier detection of sleep issues, potentially improving overall health outcomes—especially as Canadian Health Services works to use the technology and data.
References
- Apple: WatchOS 11 is Available Today
- Scripps News: How Apple’s new health features aim to help those with sleep apnea, hearing loss
- Yahoo Finance: Here’s what you should know about Apple’s new sleep and hearing health features
- Apple: Apple introduces groundbreaking health features to support conditions impacting billions of people
- Apple: Estimating Breathing Disturbances and Sleep Apnea Risk from Apple Watch [PDF]
- CNBC: FDA clears Apple’s sleep apnea detection feature for use. Here’s how it works
- Healthline: Apple Watch 10 Can Help Detect Sleep Apnea: How It Works
- Stat: Apple pushes into sleep apnea detection but health care integration remains unclear
- Sleep Foundation: New Feature for 2024 Apple Watch Reportedly Detects Sleep Apnea
- iPhone in Canada: Apple Watch Sleep Apnea Detection Launches in Canada