Your Apple Watch may soon be judging your sleep like a doctor
By | Published: 2025-11-01 22:31:20 | Source: Digital Trends
What happened? Team in University of Massachusetts Amherst It has developed an app called BIDSleep that turns your Apple Watch into a research-grade sleep monitor. Created under Joyita Dutta’s Biomedical Imaging and Data Science Lab, the app combines heart rate and movement data collected from the wrist with artificial intelligence models to classify sleep stages. Interestingly, it is said to have produced results closer to the gold standard of EEG-based sleep staging than other methods.
- The application is used Instantaneous heart rate and motion signals To deduce the sleep stage the wearer is experiencing (light, deep, REM).
- In the measurement test, BIDSleep achieved an overall accuracy of approximately 71% In sleep stage classification, it outperforms many standard models.
- Researchers Highlight the value of a device worn on the wrist For realistic tracking over several days, unlike traditional overnight laboratory testing.
Why this is important: Sleep is increasingly recognized as a key health factor, which is also linked to cognitive decline, cardiovascular disease, and overall well-being. Having a widespread device like the Apple Watch approaching research-level sleep means more people can be accurately monitored outside the lab.
- Previous laboratory-based EEG systems They were expensive, complex and usually limited to one-night shoots.
- With apps like BIDSleepAnd researchers (and perhaps doctors) It can track sleep patterns across multiple nightsin realistic settings.
- As a recent American Heart Association report noted, Wearable sleep data may help identify heart-related risks early.
In short, if your watch can reliably tell you when you’re in deep or REM sleep, it becomes a meaningful health tool, not just a pedometer or simple sleep tracker.
Why should I care? Sleep is not just about feeling comfortable. In fact, poor sleep quality is linked to heart disease, memory problems, mood disorders, and long-term cognitive decline. If a popular device like the Apple Watch comes close to medical-grade sleep analysis, it could make early detection easier. Simply put, technology that many people already have could soon help uncover meaningful health insights previously reserved within the clinical sleep laboratory.
- Instead of just showing “sleep hours,” the watch can report deep sleep/REM sleep Trends that actually matter to doctors.
- For anyone suffering from insomnia, fatigue or long-term health risks, Multi-night tracking at home is much easier Than book expensive studies.
- naturally, It will not replace electroencephalography (EEG) in the hospital yetbut it can become an incredibly powerful first-line tool, especially for people who have never been to a sleep clinic.
Okay, so what’s next? The UMass team plans to conduct direct comparisons between BIDSleep and the Apple Watch’s native sleep phase features, as well as broader field testing among people with sleep disorders. At the same time, doctors will be watching to see how this data can integrate into diagnostic workflows and whether regulatory frameworks around wearable health monitoring adapt accordingly. As the wearables market grows, we expect more analysts, device makers, and healthcare providers to line up behind the idea that your wristwatch today could be your sleep laboratory tomorrow.
(Tags for translation)Wearables
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