Apple rolls out advanced sleep features to its smartwatches in more countries

Apple is expanding its health‑focused offerings with the launch of a sleep apnoea detection feature on Apple Watch in Australia.

Now available via a watchOS update, this capability brings data‑driven respiratory monitoring to Australian users equipped with Apple Watch Series 9, Apple Watch Series 10, and Apple Watch Ultra 2 devices.

The feature joins a growing suite of health tools on Apple Watch already available in over 150 countries and regions, including the US, EU, and Japan.

It also comes as Samsung introduces its latest lineup of health-focused wearables, showing clear momentum in the $70 billion global wearable health market.

AI magic

The sleep apnoea announcement also follows the brand's recent introduction of its “Beyond Sensor” initiative, spearheaded by the Wearable Behaviour Model (WBM), which employs advanced AI to extract health insights from passive behavioural data.

Rather than relying solely on physiological measures like heart rate or step counts, WBM analyses patterns to detect health conditions.

Trained on billions of watch-worn hours from over 160,000 participants, the model has already demonstrated up to 92 % accuracy in identifying early-stage pregnancy using just behavioural signals.

Get notified

Apple’s “Sleep Apnoea Notifications” use the watch’s accelerometer to track subtle wrist movements, tagged as Breathing Disturbances, and gauge interruptions in breathing patterns.

These readouts are collated nightly and visible in the Health app, with elevated breathing disturbance levels flagged over a 30‑day check period.

The brand says this feature relies on machine learning models trained with nearly 4,000 nights of clinical-grade sleep data from over 2,100 participants.

A subsequent validation study confirmed that individuals identified by the algorithm all had at least mild sleep apnoea.

Apple Watch users will receive notifications if their device detects consistent signs of moderate-to-severe sleep apnoea.

These alerts provide information about the affected time period and include educational materials to help users understand the potential issue.

The company emphasises that this feature is not a diagnostic tool, but rather a screening aid. If you experience symptoms, you should seek medical advice for proper evaluation.