MacRumors reports that Health Canada has approved watchOS 11’s sleep apnea detection feature on the Apple Watch Series 10, Apple Watch Series 9, and Apple Watch Ultra 2. However, the article notes that it’s not clear when Apple will expand the feature to Canada.
Sleep apnea is a potentially serious condition where breathing stops momentarily during sleep. The condition, which is estimated to impact more than one billion people worldwide, goes undiagnosed in most cases, and if left untreated, can have important consequences on health. Building on the intelligent health features already available, the Apple Watch will offer a feature to help identify signs of sleep apnea.
To detect sleep apnea, the smartwatch uses the accelerometer to monitor small movements at the wrist that are associated with interruptions in normal respiratory patterns, tracked by a new Apple Watch metric called Breathing Disturbances. While some breathing disturbances are normal, they are important to track as they can be used to help understand restfulness of sleep, and when occurring frequently over multiple nights, may be associated with sleep apnea.
The new sleep apnea algorithm analyzes breathing disturbance data so Apple Watch can notify the user if the data indicates signs of sleep apnea. The notification will include the time period when potential sleep apnea occurred, educational materials on the importance of seeking treatment, and a PDF providing three months of breathing disturbance data to reference during a conversation with a healthcare provider.
