Apple Watch Tips And Tricks To Help Your New Year’s Resolutions

If your planned new year’s resolutions are seeming that bit trickier right now, don’t beat yourself up. A slump in your determination as the first month comes to an end is natural. Luckily, Apple Watch wearers can turn to the latest features on their wrist to boost their resolve by understanding their health and fitness better. Remember: knowledge is power. Here are a handful of the most useful Watch metrics.

Tip 1: Use The Vitals App

The more you know, the better you can adapt. So, the Vitals app, a relatively new addition to the Apple Watch arsenal, is key. It records health metrics overnight and, crucially, because it also offers context it can help you decide what you do the next day.

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While you’re sleeping, it measures heart rate, respiratory rate, wrist temperature, sleep duration, and blood oxygen. The app then analyses your daily health status so you can see when they are out of the ordinary, based on an assessment of your personal typical range.

When two or more metrics are out of whack, the Watch can send you a notification, and also indicated how it can affect other parts of your life, such as illness, alcohol consumption and more.

To get the benefit, you need to wear your Apple Watch at night, obviously, so make sure you charge it before going to bed. An 8-minute charge is all you need for eight hours of sleep tracking.

Tip 2: Know About Your Wrist Temperature

Wrist temperature is another useful metric, also measured while you’re asleep. Changes in temperature happen because of diet and exercise, alcohol consumption, sleep environment, or physiological factors such as menstrual cycles and illness. If you have an Apple Watch Series 8 or later, you can use wrist temperature data to estimate the likely day of ovulation after it has occurred and improve period predictions. Sleep tracking needs to be enabled with Sleep Focus enabled to receive these valuable insights.

Tip 3: Check In On Your Mental Health

The brilliant Mindfulness app on the Watch is the home for the restorative Breathe sessions and a place to log how you’re feeling. The Health app, which lives in your companion iPhone can tell you how this matches things like sleep, exercise, and more. And, of course, there’s the Journal app on the iPhone where you can write extended entries.

Tip 4: Know About The Importance Of Daylight

Just as we all feel that bit better when the sun is shining and lifts the light from gray to bright, so time in daylight can provide physical and mental health benefits. The ambient light sensor on the Watch can tell you how much time you spend outdoors.

And it does it in a sophisticated way, using advanced algorithms that are looking at the light levels around you but can also take into account if you're doing an outdoor workout, giving you credit even if you have a long sleeve on.

Tip 5: Find Out About Sleep Apnea

This is one of the latest additions to the Apple Watch and is found on Series 10, Ultra and Ultra 2. It can see if there are breathing disturbances while you sleep. Many people have sleep apnea without it being diagnosed. If that turns out to be you, knowing this could make a significant difference to your health and fitness.

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