At Apples fall event the Apple Watch 10 was announced with Sleep Apnea detection. The sleep apnea detection will be made available on the Apple Watch 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2. Sleep Apnea is a sleep disorder where breathing stops and staarts during sleep. The most common is obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) where through muscles relax and block the airways. Sleep apnea is often left undiagnosed increasing the risk of heart disease, diabetes, and hypertension. 

I was diagnosed with sleep apnea about 10 years ago, after visiting my doctor because I was always tired. The process of going through a sleep study to collect information and get a diagnosis is a little tedious, requiring you to either spend a night in a clinic or bringing monitoring equipment home and hope you don't remove the sensors in your sleep. It was worth the effort as I was found to have servre sleep apnea and stopped breathing 60 times per hour, compared to a normal sleeper who may stop breathing up to 5 times per hour.

Due to my diagnosis, my mum, dad and brothers all went through the process and were diagnosed with sleep apnea. By this time, my mum already had heart disease, and I do wonder if detecting sleep apnea many years earlier would have prevented heart disease and extended her life. It is estimated that 80% of people with sleep apnea, don't know they have it. From my perspective, this added sleep apnea detection will help improve the quality of many people's lives and hopefully extend them.

Apart from this being built into the Apple Watch, worn by millions, it will be accessible to people with disabilities, including blind and low vision users. We need more companies putting health, sustainability and accessibility at the core of their products and services.