How you could track your sleep pattern with the Apple Watch

Apple Watch sleep analysis

The Apple Watch’s battery is rumored to last somewhere between 8 and 12 hours a day and you’ll have to charge it each night. Some people (bloggers, journalists and readers) seem to think that this means it won’t be able to track your sleeping patterns.  That would give the Fitbit, Pebble and some other health trackers an advantage over the Apple Watch, as these can be worn at night and only need to be charged once a week or so.

It might very well be that the Apple Watch will need to be charged at night, and when it is charging you won’t be able to wear it. But that doesn’t mean it won’t be able to track your sleep pattern. I’m not wearing the iPhone on my arm, but I do use it to track my sleep behavior with an app called Sleep Cycle.

iPhone sleep analysis

Every evening I put my iPhone in Airplane mode, connect the charger and start the Sleep Cycle app. Then I put the iPhone on the corner of my bed just below the sheets.

The accelerometer in the iPhone tracks movement in my bed and can guess, by the amount and type of movement, whether I’m awake, or sleeping, or dreaming. You will be able to do the same with your Apple Watch. Just leave it on the edge of your bed and it will keep track of how you sleep just fine.

Sleep Cycle isn’t compatible with HealthKit yet. But as soon as it is and you own both an iPhone and an Apple Watch, it’s easy to imagine being able to decide which one to leave on the side of your bed to track your sleep pattern.

I think this is even more attractive than wearing a bracelet or watch at night.

Image credit: Getty Images