😴 Intrigued by the Apple Watch’s new sleep apnea detection? Here’s everything you need to know to set up and use it.

🔵 Blue light is the enemy of sleep! Banish it from your Apple Watch with Night Shift.

🔒 Sleep Lock is great until you need to use your Apple Watch. Fortunately, it’s easy to quickly unlock your watch.

We love the Apple Watch, but there are many other smartwatches to choose from. What percentage of smartwatch owners worldwide own an Apple Watch?

1. 🍎15.1%
2. 🍎🍎22.5%
3. 🍎🍎🍎 55.3%

Lack of sleep is hurting your health

If, like me, you are among the one in three adults in America who don’t get enough sleep (according to the CDC), then you’re at risk for a whole host of health problems, such as heart disease and high blood pressure.

Fortunately, Apple makes it really easy to track your sleep with the Apple Watch. You can then use what you learn to make the lifestyle changes necessary to improve your sleep.

Get Started with Sleep Tracking

First, you will need to set up Sleep Tracking. You can do this on your Apple Watch, but I find it’s much easier to do in the Health app because of the iPhone’s bigger screen. Make sure you enable charging reminders so you have enough battery life at bedtime to accurately track your sleep overnight. Soon, you will start to learn how much sleep you are averaging and what quality of sleep you are getting.

What do you do with all that data?

How do you use the sleep-tracking information your Apple Watch gives you to improve your sleep? While you could look over the data every day and try to correlate how you slept with what you did the day before, there are plenty of third-party apps that can do that for you, so you can discover trends over time. Olena has several great sleep apps that she recommends. For my part, I really like the app SleepWatch because of how well it connects my activities during the day with how well I sleep at night. For example, I’ve learned from the app that when I have a glass of wine with dinner, my heart rate tends to be higher while I sleep. When I exercise, my sleep quality is usually higher. Neither of these things is surprising, but seeing it laid out in a graph really motivates me to make healthier choices.

Do you track your sleep? What changes have you made in your life based on what you’ve learned? Email OntheWatch@iphonelife.com and let us know!

You asked and we answered: Battery life pain and Side button problems

I have an Apple Watch that works well except for the battery. Seems like I can only get a day out of each charge. Is there an option to replace the battery or is there an option to trade in this watch towards a new one? Thanks for any advice you may offer. - Jim M

Hi Jim, replacing a watch battery will usually cost about $99, while trading in your Apple Watch will get you anywhere from $50 to $365 off the cost of a new watch. But keep in mind that one day of battery life per charge is actually pretty good for most Apple Watch models. According to Apple, a typical user can expect 18 hours of battery life per charge for the new Series 10 and 36 hours for the Ultra 2. So if your watch is otherwise working well, I recommend trying the tips in our article on how to extend Apple Watch battery life before shelling out for a new battery or watch. If you only try one thing from that article, consider turning off the Always On Display, which is a notorious battery hog. Just go to Settings, tap Display & Brightness, tap Always On, and toggle off Always On. Going forward, you will need to tap your watch screen in order to wake it. I hope that helps! - Sarah

The Apple Watch feature I love the most is Ping your iPhone in the Control Center. I use it a lot and was really disappointed when they decided to switch from swiping up on the watch face to using the Side Button to open the Control Center. It can be difficult to press the Side Button with old hands. I still love the feature. I just wish they would consider seniors when making changes. - Linda W

Hi Linda, I also was not initially a fan of the new way of opening the Apple Watch Control Center, so I can see how struggling to press the Side button would make the change even less welcome. I recommend that you try asking Siri, either with “Hey Siri” or Raise to Wake, to ping your iPhone in order to avoid the hassle of pressing buttons. For the best results, make sure you don’t have Find My notifications silenced on your iPhoneas well. I hope this helps! - Sarah

✉️ Email your questions to OnTheWatch@iPhoneLife.com and we might answer them in a future edition! Questions may be edited for clarity and length.

• 🤒 Your Apple Watch can let you know you’re about to get sick. But you have to set this app up first.
• 🤯 Top 5 underrated Apple Watch apps. Try them now!
• 📞 Is it your doctor calling? Or a scammer? Apple is making it easier to tell.
• 🏆 The best and worst iPhone Home Screen layouts, ranked. How would yours measure up?
• 🪫 Is your iPhone battery draining faster these days? You’re not imagining it.
• 💵 Here’s what investing $10,000 in Apple in 2014 would get you 10 years later.

Missed the most recent editions? Now you can go back and read them!

• October 18 edition
• October 4 edition
• September 20 edition
• September 6 edition
• August 23 edition
• August 9 edition

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