A look at the Apple Watch's sleep apnea detector

new update coming to the health app in apple watches is all about improving your sleep the FDA officially cleared the watch's sleep apnea detection feature ABC's Becky Whirley got exclusive access to try out the new tech sleep is supposed to be peaceful but for millions of Americans it's anything but the consequences of sleep apne are endless in addition to feeling tired and sleepy all the time it's a huge risk factor for high blood pressure stroke heart attack dementia and mood disturbance medical sleep apnea tests need a doctor's prescription can be pricey and require sleeping at a Sleep Center night or hooking up diagnostic equipment at home but Apple just announcing FDA clearance for a software feature in the Apple watch to help identify patterns of breathing disturbances suggestive of moderate to severe sleep apnea to try it out Apple giving us exclusive early access to the new watch the watch has a motion detector called an accelerometer that's so sensitive that from your wrist Apple says it can determine the pattern of your lungs inflating and deflating and it logs when something disrupts that pattern the watch has been monitoring my sleep for the last few nights and when it comes to breathing disturbances good news it says they're not elevated for FDA clearance Apple tested the feature on roughly 1,400 people and then compared it against the gold standard medical sleep test and apple says the watch correctly alerted people who had apnea 66% of the time and while it doesn't diagnose sleep apnea it can indicate something is going on other devices like the AA ring and Fitbit give warnings about apnea and the Samsung Galaxy watch has a similar FDA clearance but with the Samsung watch you have to actively set up an apne evaluation while the Apple watch does it automatically and that was ABC's Becky Worley reporting and we do want to emphasize again the apple watch does not diagn no sleep apnea Apple recommends you see a doctor if the watch detects signs of that disorder