On Friday, Samsung announced that it received FDA approval for the sleep apnea feature on the Samsung Health Monitor app. The feature will detect signs of sleep apnea using the Galaxy Watch and a compatible smartphone. Previously, the feature and the underlying tech received approval from South Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety.
How To Track Sleep Apnea On Samsung Watch?
As the feature reaches more users, it will help them to detect signs of moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea over a two-night monitoring period. Users must track their sleep twice for more than four hours to use the feature within ten days.
What Is Sleep Apnea And Why Is It Important To Track It At Early Stages?
Further, users must be over the age of 22 years to use the feature. For the uninitiated, sleep apnea is a sleep disorder wherein patients suffer from irregular breathing during their sleep. According to the National Institute of Health, obstructive sleep apnea happens when “your upper airway becomes blocked many times while you sleep.”
This could lead to a lack of oxygen in the body. Untreated sleep apnea could increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension, coronary artery disease, heart failure, and stroke. Another reason this is a notable feature is that it isn’t available on any other smartwatch, neither the Apple Watch nor the Google Pixel Watch.
The Feature Isn’t Available On Other Smartwatches
However, both companies could release the feature on their upcoming smartwatches. Even though Samsung didn’t mention which smartwatches will be able to track sleep apnea, a report by Phone Arena suggests that Galaxy Watch 5 and Galaxy Watch 6 users should be able to use the feature.
Upon further digging, we found out that the company released this feature for users in South Korea in October 2023 for the models mentioned above. Nonetheless, the feature should be available for users in the United States by the third quarter of this year.
You can follow Smartprix on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Google News. Visit smartprix.com for the most recent news, reviews, and tech guides.
