Sleep apnea is a widespread sleep disorder characterised by repeated breathing disruptions throughout the night, leading to daytime fatigue, elevated blood pressure, and cardiovascular strain. Because episodes occur during unconscious sleep, millions of individuals live with undiagnosed sleep apnea. With watchOS 11 and iOS 18, Apple introduced FDA-cleared Sleep Apnea Notifications, allowing supported Apple Watch models to track breathing disturbances overnight and alert users if consistent patterns indicate moderate-to-severe sleep apnea.
How Apple Watch Detects Breathing Disturbances
Sleep apnea tracking operates via precision accelerometer hardware and longitudinal telemetry models:
- Breathing Disturbances Metric: The onboard accelerometer detects micro-movements at the wrist associated with interruptions in normal respiratory cycles while asleep.
- Nightly Classifications: In the Health app, each night’s sleep is classified as having either Elevated or Not Elevated breathing disturbances.
- 30-Day Evaluation Window: Apple Watch evaluates breathing disturbance trends over a rolling 30-day window. If a user exhibits consistent elevated disturbance levels across multiple nights, the system triggers a formal medical notification.
- Clinical Export: Generates a three-month PDF clinical summary showing breathing disturbance timelines, wrist movement data, and sleep stages, ready to share directly with medical doctors.
Hardware Prerequisites for Sleep Apnea Notifications
Because the feature requires advanced motion sensor calibration, verify device compatibility:
- Supported Apple Watch Models: Apple Watch Series 9, Apple Watch Series 10, and Apple Watch Ultra 2 running watchOS 11 or later.
- Paired iPhone: iPhone XS or newer running iOS 18 or later.
- Age Requirement: Intended for adults aged 18 and older who have not been previously diagnosed with sleep apnea.
Enabling Sleep Apnea Notifications in the Health App
Setting up notifications takes place through the paired iPhone:
- Open the Health app on your iPhone.
- Tap the Browse tab in the bottom-right corner.
- Select Respiratory, then tap Sleep Apnea Notifications.
- Review the clinical onboarding screens and tap Set Up.
- Confirm that you are at least 18 years of age and that you have not previously received a formal sleep apnea diagnosis.
- Tap Continue, then tap Done.
- Ensure Track Sleep with Apple Watch is enabled under Health > Sleep, and wear your watch snugly to bed for at least 10 nights across any 30-day period.
Viewing Nightly Breathing Disturbances and Exporting Clinical Reports
To inspect your nightly respiratory metrics and share findings with healthcare providers:
- Open the Health app on your iPhone and go to Browse > Respiratory.
- Tap Breathing Disturbances.
- Review the historical graph:
- Green markers indicate nights where disturbance counts were Not Elevated.
- Orange or raised peaks highlight nights with Elevated respiratory pauses.
- To prepare documentation for a medical consultation, scroll to the bottom of the Sleep Apnea Notifications page and tap Export PDF.
- Tap the share icon to save the clinical report to the Files app or email it directly to your sleep specialist.