How tracking my sleep score changed everything

A month with the Apple Watch, along with its gentle nudges and a doctor's guidance, builds a healthy sleep cycle

- Shouvik Das

The first time I used the sleep score feature on an Apple Watch was after setting-up the new Series Il about a month ago.

With the rigour of a heavy news cycle, my sleep cycle was completely awry—for a person who typically had no problems sleeping, I started facing issues such as snoring, waking up multiple times through the night, and on certain occasions struggling to sleep even when I was exhausted.

On the first night, the ‘sleep’ app on Apple Watch Series II, which ran watchOS 26 out of the box, showed a redesigned interface with a score readout. A quick glance at it showed a score of about 55—which explained itself by saying that this was a preliminary score based on general parameters. The previous night, I'd gone to sleep too late and woke up too early—thus giving a low score.

Over the past four weeks, I've been regularly wearing the Apple Watch Series 11 to sleep and keeping track of how I slept the first thing on waking up. It has become something I look forward to, and something that my physician has been asking me to keep track of.

Six months ago, my physician flagged potential signs of sleep apnoea—a disorder where breathing stops for over 10 seconds repeatedly during sleep, thereby disrupting sleep quality. Early signs of concern over sleep quality started emerging about a year ago after I went through a phase of waking up in the morning without feeling rested.