Consumer smartwatch helps identify adults with severe sleep apnea

New research suggests that a consumer smartwatch can help identify adults with moderate-to-severe obstructive sleep apnea, offering a way to screen for a common sleep disorder that often goes undiagnosed.

Results show that the Samsung Galaxy Watch demonstrated high accuracy for detecting moderate-to-severe obstructive sleep apnea among adults aged 22 and older. It correctly distinguished those with moderate-to-severe sleep apnea 94% of the time, with a 94% sensitivity and 67% specificity at its default setting. The device achieved 100% sensitivity and specificity among high-risk individuals with high hypoxic burden, a physiologic marker of low oxygen saturation in the blood.

Our findings show that consumer smartwatches can make sleep apnea screening more accessible by identifying people at risk for moderate-to-severe obstructive sleep apnea. These devices are not diagnostic, but by bringing validated screening into something people already wear every night, we may be able to identify risk earlier and shorten the path to evaluation and to low-risk, well-established therapies such as positive airway pressure and weight management."

Dr. Robson Capasso, principal investigator, professor of otolaryngology – head and neck surgery – at Stanford University

According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, obstructive sleep apnea is a common and serious sleep disorder in which breathing repeatedly stops or becomes restricted during sleep due to blockage of the upper airway. Untreated sleep apnea is associated with an increased risk of stroke, heart attacks, depression, and motor vehicle accidents.

The study was published Aug. 27 in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, the official publication of the AASM. It involved 147 adults with an average age of 54 years. Participants had a prior diagnosis of moderate-to-severe sleep apnea or a high pre-test likelihood of having it. They wore a Galaxy Watch 6 for two nights during sleep studies at the Stanford Health Care Sleep Medicine Center and for three nights at home. The Sleep Apnea Feature of the Galaxy Watch was compared with the results of the overnight sleep studies.

"One of the important aspects of this study is that we validated the smartwatch across multiple nights and multiple sleep apnea measures, including apnea-hypopnea index and hypoxic burden," said lead author Arash Alavi, who has a doctorate in computer science and is director of software engineering at Stanford University's Deep Data Research Center. "That kind of rigorous validation is important for clinical screening."

According to the authors, the findings demonstrate that consumer sleep wearables can serve as an effective screening tool to help identify individuals who may benefit from formal diagnostic testing. While wearable technology is not intended to diagnose obstructive sleep apnea, it may help guide individuals toward timely evaluation and treatment.

Anyone who has signs of sleep apnea, such as habitual snoring and gasping or choking during sleep, should talk to a doctor or contact an AASM-accredited sleep center for help.