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Apple Buys Beddit, Likely Means Sleep-Tracking For Apple Watch Is Incoming

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David Phelan

The news that Apple has acquired Finnish company Beddit is potentially exciting. Beddit makes sleep-tracking devices like the Beddit 3 Sleep Monitor, which works with iOS and Apple Watch to analyze sleep. It’s a strip of sensors that slips under the sheets to track your movements. Apple is probably interested in the company's sleep analysis smarts more than its hardware, though.

This acquisition is big news because currently Apple doesn’t have its own sleep-monitoring app among its many Apple Watch fitness features, such as measuring workouts and a great meditative app called Breathe.

So far, sleep tracking has been the preserve of dedicated fitness trackers. This is partly because the Apple Watch’s battery life, though easily more than a day, more or less requires nightly charges. This means it’s not on users’ wrists while they slumber so it can't monitor movements and deduce sleep quality as bed-worn trackers do. That said, recharge time is fast so it’s not impossible to recharge your Watch in the half hour after you get up, say, if you've been wearing it all night.

Apple rarely reveals what it plans to do with companies it’s bought – and that’s the case this time, I’ve asked – but it’s likely that Beddit’s know-how in sleep monitoring is to the fore here.

Right now, probably the only change Beddit users will notice is the privacy section update on the website. Usually, Apple goes out of its way to ensure that customer experience remains the same when it buys a company, and that’s doubtless what will happen here.

David Phelan

There are plenty of third-party apps which monitor sleep (and I’ll be reviewing some of them shortly), but the possibility of Apple producing its own app now seems likely.

Sleep tracking is important as a crucial element of health monitoring – Jawbone’s UP3 wristband, for instance, integrates sleep information brilliantly into a daily exercise regimen – and Apple recognises this.

Only last year it added a Bedtime tab to the Clock app which is geared towards helping you get to bed at the right time to help ensure you’re refreshed when you wake up.

This is easier than it sounds. You may not think about your day starting when you go to bed, which you should do. Or think about leaving yourself a half an hour to wind down before you get to bed. The Bedtime tab in Clock helps with both these things, recognising the importance of regular go-to-bed times and sleep periods.

Sleep tracking on Apple Watch from the company itself is definitely something to be desired, and now it seems more likely than ever.

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