Can your smartwatch detect sleep apnea?

None can diagnose it, but some can screen for possible signs.

You won't always know when you have sleep apnea. In fact, the only symptom some people notice is feeling exhausted after a full night's sleep. But there are other hints that you should consider seeing a doctor for evaluation, and some wearable tech can deliver those.

Confirming a diagnosis of sleep apnea requires medical testing. In some cases, that means spending a night in a sleep lab, hooked up to a bunch of wires and sensors. What some consumer smartwatches can do is screen for signs that may suggest you have it. Then, you can visit your doctor to get the ball rolling on a formal diagnosis.

While many smartwatches can track your sleep, screening for sleep apnea is much less common. In fact, the only two major smartwatch makers with sleep apnea notification features with some sort of FDA verdict are also the two biggest players in the smartwatch space: Apple and Samsung.

Without getting too much into the weeds of FDA terminology, I'll just say that Samsung was granted De Novo authorization from the administration in 2024 for the its Sleep Apnea feature, while Apple received FDA clearance (510k) for its sleep apnea notification feature some months later.

The feature requires the latest version of watchOS on a compatible Apple Watch and the newest version of iOS on your paired iPhone. It's designed for people 18 and older. Also, don't just put on your watch and go to sleep: You'll need to set up sleep tracking first. Then, you'll need to log your sleep for at least 10 nights within a 30-day period before receiving notifications.

On compatible devices, you can turn on sleep apnea notifications in the Health app on your iPhone. In the app, go to Search > Respiratory, and tap "Set Up" under Sleep Apnea Notifications. (If you see "On" instead of "Set Up," then, well, you've already set it up.)

You can look over your data in the Health app under Respiratory > Breathing Disturbances.

Samsung offers a similar feature to screen for signs of moderate-to-severe obstructive sleep apnea. It works with the Galaxy Watch 4 and newer. (The Galaxy Fit lineup isn't compatible.)

Note that you can't use it with any old Android phone: It'll need to be a Galaxy phone with the Samsung Health Monitor app installed. The feature is designed for people 22 and older.

You can activate Samsung's feature by tapping Sleep apnea (and then toggling it on) in the Samsung Health Monitor app on your Galaxy phone. Samsung's version requires less data than Apple's: only two nights of sleep tracking within a 10-day period