Your Apple Watch could soon include in-built sleep-tracking tech, a new report claims. According to Bloomberg, Apple is said to be testing this technology internally. If it lives up to its promise, it could ship as part of the Apple Watch by 2020.

Fitbit already offers sleep-tracking tech, as does Withings, previously Nokia Health. Introducing its own sleep-tracking technology would help Apple stay on the cutting edge of wearable technology.

Apple’s interest in sleep-tracking

This isn’t the first time Apple has ventured into this terrain — although it would be the first for Apple Watch. Apple’s Health app for iOS has included sleep-tracking since 2014. However, this has relied on third-party devices, or simply pulling in information from the Clock app’s alarm clock function.

More notably, Apple acquired Finnish company Beddit, which makes a sleep-tracking sensor strip, in May 2017. At the end of last year, a new Beddit sleep monitor launched. This was the first version since Apple acquired the company. The $149.95 device is designed to be wrapped around your mattress. It will then record data, including your movements while asleep, heart rate, breathing, snoring, bedroom temperature, and humidity.

However, the Beddit 3.5 is very much a niche accessory for Apple. Incorporating that same (or similar) technology into the Apple Watch would bring it to a much wider user base. It would also help Apple further move into the field of mobile health, one that Apple Watch increasingly gears itself toward.

Coming soon to a wrist near you

There are already third-party Apple Watch apps which can track sleep. An Apple solution could possibly provide more granular information, however — or at least let Apple have its own version of this tech.

Sleep tracking does bring with it several challenges. Most notable is the fact that wearable sleep tracking will require a battery that’s able to last overnight. This is currently not something the Apple Watch is able to do, due to its battery life. It is a weakness of the existing third-party apps available. As an alternative to increasing battery life, Bloomberg suggests that one way around this might be to include a low-power mode.

Would you consider sleep-tracking a big selling point for a future Apple Watch? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Source: Bloomberg