Apple has announced that, starting today, a new Apple Watch feature arrives in Brazil that helps identify signs of moderate to severe sleep apnea. In order to offer the sleep apnea notification feature, Apple obtained the license for medical equipment from the National Health Surveillance Agency.
Sleep apnea is a serious disorder that causes repetitive episodes of breathing pauses during sleep. It is estimated that this condition affects more than a billion people worldwide and, in most cases, is not diagnosed. If left untreated, sleep apnea can have serious health consequences, such as a higher risk of hypertension, type 2 diabetes and heart problems.
To detect sleep apnea, the Apple Watch uses the accelerometer to record small wrist movements during sleep associated with interruptions in normal breathing patterns. This monitoring is done with the new Apple Watch metric called Respiratory Disorders.
Even if some of these changes are considered normal, it is important to follow up, since they help evaluate the quality of sleep and, if they occur frequently on several nights, may be associated with sleep apnea. Nocturnal Respiratory Disorders are recorded in the Health app on iPhone and iPad and classified as high or low. These records can be consulted for periods of one month, six months or one year.
