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Sleep Cycle debuts Apple Watch app with snore prevention, silent alarm

Sleep Cycle for iPhone introduced snore detection a year ago to help sleep trackers discover whether or not snoring is affecting their sleep quality. Today Sleep Cycle is building on that feature with a brand new Apple Watch app that will silently nudge you when snoring is detected…

The goal is simple. Using the Apple Watch’s Taptic Engine, Sleep Cycle can give your wrist a subtle (and silent) tap when the iPhone app detects that you’re snoring. The tap is subtle enough that it shouldn’t wake you, Sleep Cycle says, but it should prompt you to change positions which can help you stop snoring.

It’s like when you’re snoring wakes up your partner and they prod you turn over and stop snoring, except your partner is Apple Watch and no one has to wake up tired and annoyed.

The feature is available through the latest version of Sleep Cycle for iPhone. After installing Sleep Cycle on Apple Watch, check that the Snore Stopper feature is turned on in the Sleep Cycle settings for Apple Watch on the iPhone app.

Sleep Cycle for Apple Watch also features a silent alarm clock that relies on the Taptic Engine to quietly and gently wake you up. Apple’s built-in Alarm app offers a similar feature on Apple Watch, but Sleep Cycle also doubles as a sleep tracker that logs duration and quality in Apple’s Health app.

The alarm feature lets you spin the Digital Crown to set the wake up time, and Sleep Cycle steadily increases the intensity of the wake-up taps as your alarm time approaches. The alarm time is displayed subtly with minimum brightness when you check your Apple Watch during sleep mode, and options for Snooze and Sleep are offered.

At the core of the Sleep Cycle alarm clock app are two different technology patents. The first allows the app to identify the most advantageous moment for a sleeping person to be awakened in a given interval of time, and the second allows the app to track sleep using sound. The app then analyzes users’ sleep, records findings and wakes them during their lightest sleep phase using a predefined 30-minute alarm window.

Finally, the new watch app lets Sleep Cycle read your heart rate average through the night when sleep tracking with Apple Watch. Sleep tracking with Apple Watch requires charging during the day, of course, which can often take about an hour for newer Apple Watches that often have 50% battery at the end of the day.

Sleep Cycle for iPhone and Apple Watch is a free download from the App Store.


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