Inside iOS 10: New 'Bedtime' feature helps you get a proper night's sleep

AppleInsider

As part of a greater focus on user health, Apple has introduced new alarms in iOS 10 for sleep, reminding users when to go to bed for a full night of rest, and also keeping track of their sleeping habits.

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The new bedtime and wake alarms are found and configured in the native Clock app in iOS 10, within an all-new "Bedtime" tab. The app notes that going to bed and waking up at the same times every day are key to healthy sleep.

Apple offers users a simplified setup process, asking a series of questions to configure the "Bedtime Alarm" and "Wake Alarm" to their liking. These include what time the user would like to wake up, which days of the week the alarm should go off, and how many hours of sleep they need per night.

After initial setup, the "Bedtime" tab presents a graphical dial to allow users to adjust how much sleep they need per night.

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Once configured, users will receive a bedtime reminder the night before alarms are set to go off. This can be customized with a prompt immediately at bedtime, or a range of times up to an hour before a user wants to be in bed.

By prompting a user for bedtime and also waking them up in the morning, the new Bedtime Alarm and Wake Alarm integrate with Apple's Health app, allowing for sleep tracking data. Within the Clock app is a quick link to the "Sleep Analysis" data logged in HealthKit.

The Clock app also offers a visual representation of the user's "Sleep History," challenging them to keep the bars aligned by going to bed and waking up at the same times every day.

Another noteworthy feature is a customizable "Wake Up Sound Volume" within the "Wake Alarm" options. Here, users can customize how loud their alarm is in the morning, separately from the iOS-wide alarm volume.

Editor's note: This article was originally published in June following Apple's announcement of iOS 10 at WWDC 2016. It has been updated and republished to coincide with the mobile operating system's public release. For more on iOS 10, see AppleInsider's ongoing Inside iOS 10.

linkman

Apple's solution for sleep tracking is incomplete. Their device for full sleep tracking is the Apple Watch. But with the current model at around 18 hours you are left with the problem of when to charge it. Charge it during waking hours and you will miss out on its usefulness as notification/quick replier/step tracker/heart rate tracker or charge it during sleep and miss out on complete sleep monitoring.

cyberzombie

I sleep with my Apple Watch. I charge it either in the morning or evening depending on how much I've used it - if I do my typical developer 'sit-at-a-keyboard' all day with no workouts, my SS 42mm lasts around 30 hours.

redraider11

linkman said:

Apple's solution for sleep tracking is incomplete. Their device for full sleep tracking is the Apple Watch. But with the current model at around 18 hours you are left with the problem of when to charge it. Charge it during waking hours and you will miss out on its usefulness as notification/quick replier/step tracker/heart rate tracker or charge it during sleep and miss out on complete sleep monitoring.

Everything has pros and cons. A solution would be to buy a second Apple Watch since you can pair more than one now. This addition to iOS10 is a good compromise though. 

By the way, are they ever to going to add the ability to freaking adjust snooze intervals? So basic and yet it has been missing since the beginning of the iPhone!

rogifan_new

linkman said:

Apple's solution for sleep tracking is incomplete. Their device for full sleep tracking is the Apple Watch. But with the current model at around 18 hours you are left with the problem of when to charge it. Charge it during waking hours and you will miss out on its usefulness as notification/quick replier/step tracker/heart rate tracker or charge it during sleep and miss out on complete sleep monitoring.

I use my 38mm watch as an alarm every night. I charge it before I go to bed and again when I wake up in the morning.

dewme

I'm glad that Apple is giving this major health issue the attention it deserves. As others have stated the current Apple Watch is not the ideal device for collecting sleep data. I'm thinking that Apple could develop a smart "Apple Nightstand" that comes with a very thin and lightweight "data acquisition band" (DAQ band) that you'd swap out with your Apple Watch while using the Nightstand to charge both devices. At bedtime you'd take the DAQ band off the Nightstand and place on your wrist (or ankle for restless leg syndrome detection) and place your Apple Watch on the Nightstand where it would charge the watch. When you wake up you'd reverse the process, DAQ band goes on the Nightstand and Apple Watch goes on your wrist. Perhaps the two devices are connected via Bluetooth 4/5 and the Nightstand has a WiFi connection to push your sleep data into the cloud via HealthKit. Maybe the Nightstand is also a HealthKit data collection hub for other health related data collection. 

edited June 2016

netrox

Unless they come up with ultra rapid charging like under 10 minutes then I don't see how it's useful.

mattinoz

redraider11 said:

linkman said:

Apple's solution for sleep tracking is incomplete. Their device for full sleep tracking is the Apple Watch. But with the current model at around 18 hours you are left with the problem of when to charge it. Charge it during waking hours and you will miss out on its usefulness as notification/quick replier/step tracker/heart rate tracker or charge it during sleep and miss out on complete sleep monitoring.

Everything has pros and cons. A solution would be to buy a second Apple Watch since you can pair more than one now. This addition to iOS10 is a good compromise though. 

By the way, are they ever to going to add the ability to freaking adjust snooze intervals? So basic and yet it has been missing since the beginning of the iPhone!

Seems like there would be a market for a screenless tracker device with far less tech in than the watch. I guess the only reason for apple to make is that it would help sell watch bands if it uses the same bands.

headfull0wine

Want to make the alarm better?  Start with making the snooze button bigger than a line of text. 

doggone

linkman said:

Apple's solution for sleep tracking is incomplete. Their device for full sleep tracking is the Apple Watch. But with the current model at around 18 hours you are left with the problem of when to charge it. Charge it during waking hours and you will miss out on its usefulness as notification/quick replier/step tracker/heart rate tracker or charge it during sleep and miss out on complete sleep monitoring.

Charge it in the morning when you get up and have breakfast and a shower. That is usually enough to get it back to 100%.

tallest skil

If I was to start tracking my sleep schedule with this I’d probably break the darn thing.

headfull0wine said:

Want to make the alarm better?  Start with making the snooze button bigger than a line of text. 

Isn’t that the point?  There’s a comic I vaguely recall about an alarm that required the character to solve an unsolved math equation to be able to hit the snooze button. The final panel is him–tired-eyed and haggard–receiving the Nobel Prize in mathematics.

esaruoho

tallest skil said:

If I was to start tracking my sleep schedule with this I’d probably break the darn thing.

headfull0wine said:

Want to make the alarm better?  Start with making the snooze button bigger than a line of text. 

Isn’t that the point?  There’s a comic I vaguely recall about an alarm that required the character to solve an unsolved math equation to be able to hit the snooze button. The final panel is him–tired-eyed and haggard–receiving the Nobel Prize in mathematics.

Here's the comic: http://owlturd.com/post/129567093839/it-doesnt-feel-like-victory-image-twitter

nieksanderman

Why doesn't the article mention anything about the abscence of sleep tracking? Apple makes this "bedtime" feature look all wonderful, but in fact it is nothing more than the already existing alarm, albeit with a new look but no actual sleep tracking. Why doesn't Apple make use of the sensors built into the phone, like SleepTracker does? I'll still stick to that app, instead of this new, gimmicky, nothing-adding alarm. "Sleep analysis, my ass", as Phil Schiller would have stated it.

cyberzombie

To follow up my previous claim, I went to bed at 11:05pm with the watch at 91% running the Nap Tracker in SleepHealth. I woke up once at 4 to use the restroom (pausing and restarting the tracker), then woke up at 7:50am when my watch reminded me to stand up for a minute (it doesn't remind me during the night - may have to do with my lack of movement until I get close to wakefulness). It was at 78%.

That's 13% over 8h45m.

I use it more during the day - I'll give a final number this evening when I start charging.

spice-boy

As an adult I am already able to know what time to go to bed to get the required amount of sleep to feel alert the next day. Sorry but this is just another gimmick to justify a so far not too useful Apple Watch (which I have and wear everyday).  

urzwoo

I own both an Apple Watch and a pebble time. This 'new' feature from Apple is already available on the pebble as an app called "Morpehuez". As the pebble 'only' has an e-ink screen, battery longevity and wearing the watch all night is no problem whatsoever. 

I tealmy would  like to like my Apple Watch, but the pebble is just better!

cyberzombie

Okay - my impromptu experiment is over. Starting with an 11:05pm charge of 91% last night, I am now removing my watch. 32% charge remaining at 9:58pm. So in in 23 hours I ate about 60% of my battery capacity. I will be putting the watch back on in an hour or so.

Today's watch activities: 5ish text messages. Multiple prompts to stand up. 3 appointment reminders. Multiple temperature checks with a few drilldowns to the extended forecast (it's gonna hit 100F tomorrow). No exercise (yes - I am over weight. I am also drunk. Sue me). A few SleepHealth sleepiness checks and one alertness check. I answered the sleepiness, but dismissed the alertness - 3 minutes diversion to test response times is fine when learning my limitations, but after figuring out that it's a 100ms delay when I'm sleepy it's not worth the interruption during work. And given I drink 40-80oz of coffee per day (and sometimes 0oz on the weekends to keep me from getting completely addicted), I'm never 'sleepy' when it asks.

Getting back to the reason for this experiment, there is no reason why the Apple watch can't be used overnight. I'll bite the bullet and spend an hour exercising tomorrow (elliptical), but that won't eat 40% of my remaining battery life. What would eat the remainder is if I left my iPhone at home and used the watch to play my music to my JBirds for that hour. But I don't do that. Hmm...maybe I'll try that. It may mean charging my watch earlier in the evening.

nitrokev

I've tried this feature out but I just don't get it, what if you go to bed early are you meant to go into the clock app and adjust the time each day. I know the goal is to get a consistent routine but that isn't practical 100% of the time

slurpy

Sorry, is everyone here out and about the moment they wake up to the moment they sleep? Just throw out on the charger whenever you get home until you go to sleep or until full. In the AM, throw it on the charger while you're getting ready just to top it off. This should easily let it last the whole day and the whole night. 

cyberzombie

Piling on a zombie thread as AI resurrected it. Apple needs to make that sleep app available on the watch. The added capabilities the watch affords (heart rate, and with the Series 2 the ability to remember where you are when you're sleeping so you don't need to actually say "I'm going to sleep now", "I'm waking up now to use the restroom" like the UI-challenged SleepHealth watch app) make it a natural for those that charge in the morning or evening.

wozwoz

If interested in health, start by NOT putting wireless devices INTO your head.