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Comment by fudged71 | Hacker News Reader

While I am looking to upgrade to the Series 5 from a Series 1, I'm disappointed in the lack of native sleep tracking functionality... it's a glaring hole in the concept of overall health tracking.

Similarly, I'd hoped they would announce some standardization to weightlifting in HealthKit. The watch and iphone health options are very cardio-centric, and every weightlifting app has implemented their own internal 1RM tracking which should be at an OS-level instead.

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I’ve been using the app called AutoSleep (I think it was like $5) and it’s pretty awesome. You can even export your own data. Highly recommended.

Obviously not a solution to the native sleep tracking issue but definitely good for what’s available right now.

Use this as well. Great app! Found that I need to sleep more :).

Haha I found out the same thing. Has been the most impactful purchase on my personal health in the recent years.

I used Autosleep for a bit. I reached out to their support on some things I considered bugs / wanting to have a hybrid mode where I can sleep without it on, but also work without it on (I work in an area I can't wear my watch - and you already input a time window when you sleep). Autosleep assumes I'm sleeping during work. This broke AutoSleep's usage for me unless I wore my watch while sleeping. While that's fine, I'm sure it's a pretty unique problem I have, their support was condescending and rude. It was the standard first you don't know what you're talking about, here's how to run our app to the "why would you want to do that?" mentality. I won't use their products again, not that they care.

Long time user of Autosleep here. It works like a charm.

Native sleep tracking would mean increasing the guaranteed battery life to multiple days, or make charging a lot faster.

You turn off the wireless and screen activation at night, it hardly uses any power. It takes about 20 minutes (aka your get dressed & shower time) to recover all that power and more.

Sleep tracking would be cool, but don't most users charge their watch at night?

I think most probably do, but in my opinion the optimal way to use this watch is to wear all day and night and charge in the morning while you get ready. I've been doing that for 2 years with my Series 3 and I have never run out of battery.

I have a friend that does this. I think that this may conflict with Apple's goals around wearables, though. I suspect the company aims to determine life schedules and provide useful prompts through key portions of the day. Morning prep being one of them.

The watch needs to charge without taking it off the wrist--for example from using an Apple laptop or keyboard.

You can charge the watch fairly quickly; less than 1-2hrs. If you sleep with your watch overnight, I've seen it drain anywhere from 4% to 10%. I think it depends on the notifications, etc. I usually turn my device on theater mode and DND when I sleep.

According to another comment watchos 6 actually will have sleep tracking.

I tried different 3rd party sleep tracking apps, but it was so inaccurate that it was basically useless. I assumed that this is reason that they didn't have it.

They don't seem to be designed to wear while sleeping. It's really too big for that purpose. Also, battery life is just not enough for 24hr wearing. This is precisely why I got FitBit.

I definitely wear my Series 4 every night for sleep tracking comfortably. Charging for the 20 minutes I'm in the shower is enough.

Not a native feature, but SleepWatch is fantastic.

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