Samsung is working on implementing a sleep apnea detection feature in its Health Monitor app for the Galaxy Watch 5 and Watch 6 series. The goal here is to “detect obstructive sleep apnea symptoms in (their) early stages” before they worsen.
As explained in the announcement, the detection tool will use a “Galaxy Watch’s BioActive Sensor” to monitor the oxygen level in a person’s blood while they sleep to identify the severity of their condition. If you’re not too familiar with sleep apnea, it describes a condition in which a person stops breathing during sleep, which obviously disrupts the body’s oxygen supply. This obviously results in, as Samsung notes, “lower sleep quality and potentially additional health complications. The latter includes, but is not limited to, high blood pressure, heart disease and stroke.
How it works
Once the smartwatch has acquired the sleep data, the device analyzes “how the detected oxygen levels in the blood change” if they are affected by apnea or hypopnea. The difference between the two conditions is that hypopnea only slows your breathing; it doesn’t stop it completely.
From there it’s your estimate Apnea-Hypopnea Index (AHI), the “combined average number of apneas and hypopneas occurring per hour of sleep. According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM), five to fifteen apnea/hypopnea events per hour is mild, while 15 to 30 is considered moderate. Furthermore, you have a serious case.
Samsung claims that this feature will be easy to use. To get the AHI number, users must “track their sleep twice… within 10 days to gauge if they have these symptoms.” It is important to note that each sleep should last more than four hours.
Availability
There’s one catch: it’s only coming out in South Korea. Currently, the company is waiting for approval from the Korean government before it can officially release the update sometime in early 2024. However, we have reason to believe that the sleep apnea detection tool will eventually be rolled out internationally.
For starters, the announcement was made on Samsung’s global newsroom, next to the Korean website, in English. It also collects information from US medical institutions such as the National Sleep Foundation. Additionally, other health features are listed such as blood pressure monitoring, ECG scan and irregular health notifications – all of which are present on recent Galaxy Watch models. Due to our suspicions, we contacted Samsung and asked for more information about an international launch of sleep apnea detection. This story will be updated at a later date.
If you’re looking for other ways to get a better night’s sleep, check out TechRadar’s list of the best sleep trackers for 2023. They range from smart watches to smart rings.