Automatic Sleep Tracking with Pillow

In this post, we'll walk you through how our automatic sleep tracking works, the benefits it offers, and a few troubleshooting tips to ensure you always get the most out of your Pillow experience.

How Automatic Sleep Tracking Works

Simply Wear Your Apple Watch

Automatic Sleep Tracking with Pillow is all about convenience. To get started, all you need is your Apple Watch—worn on your wrist throughout the night. There’s no need to press any buttons or interact with your device before you drift off. Once your watch is comfortably in place, Pillow does the rest, using advanced sensors to capture detailed data about your sleep.

A Hassle-Free Setup

When you first install Pillow, our automatic sleep tracking feature is enabled by default. This means that right away, Pillow begins monitoring your sleep patterns using data from your Apple Watch. However, if you prefer to switch things up, you can easily turn off Automatic Sleep Tracking from within Pillow’s Settings. We designed the setup to be intuitive so you can focus on getting a good night’s rest without worrying about manual configurations.

Smart Sleep Analysis Algorithms

At the heart of our automatic tracking lies a sophisticated sleep analysis algorithm. Pillow’s algorithm processes sensor data captured by your Apple Watch to analyze various sleep metrics and provide you with an in-depth sleep report each morning. We harness data from specific Apple Health categories—ensuring that every aspect of your sleep is considered. Rest assured, all permissions needed for accessing this data are clearly requested, so you know exactly what is being used and why.

For those curious to explore alternative perspectives on their sleep, Pillow offers the option to switch between our proprietary algorithm and the sleep stage data produced by Apple’s sleep analysis algorithm. Whether you stick with our approach or opt for Apple’s, you’re in control of how your sleep data is analyzed.

What Your Sleep Report Includes

One of the standout features of Automatic Sleep Tracking is the comprehensive sleep report notification you receive after a sleep session. While the notification isn’t sent immediately after sleep is detected, you can count on it arriving at just the right moment—giving you a detailed overview of your night’s rest without interrupting your morning routine.

Detailed Insights at a Glance

Your sleep report is more than just a breakdown of sleep stages. It includes a range of key metrics to help you understand your overall sleep quality. Here’s what you can expect:

Sleep Stage Data: See how long you spent in each stage of sleep—light, deep, and REM—so you can assess the overall quality of your rest.
Heart Rate Analysis: Get insights into your average heart rate during sleep, which can indicate how relaxed your body was throughout the night.
Heart Rate Variability & Dip: Understand the natural fluctuations in your heart rate, offering clues about your body’s recovery processes.
Blood Oxygen Levels: Monitor your blood oxygen saturation—a crucial metric for understanding respiratory health.
Respiratory Rate Tracking: Keep tabs on your breathing patterns to see if they align with a restful sleep cycle.
Environmental Audio Levels: Find out if external noises might be affecting your sleep.
Sleep Temperature Tracking: Get an idea of how your body temperature varied during the night, which can influence sleep quality.

This wealth of information is designed to empower you with actionable insights. Whether you’re looking to improve your sleep habits, understand the impact of daily stress, or simply be more aware of your nighttime patterns, Pillow’s detailed sleep analysis has you covered.

A Few Practical Considerations

Automatic Tracking vs. Manual Mode

While automatic sleep tracking offers unmatched convenience, it does come with a small limitation—if you rely on an alarm to wake you up in the morning, you’ll need to use Pillow’s manual mode. In automatic mode, Pillow focuses solely on analyzing your sleep without interfering with your wake-up routine. We understand that alarms are a critical part of many users’ morning routines, which is why we’ve ensured that our manual sleep tracking mode remains available for those who need it.

Ensuring Accurate Sleep Detection

For Pillow to accurately detect and analyze your sleep sessions, a few simple requirements must be met:

Permissions: Make sure you have granted Pillow all the necessary permissions to access your Apple Health data. Without these, the app might not capture the full scope of your sleep metrics.
Apple Watch Fit: Your Apple Watch should be worn snugly on your wrist throughout the night. A loose fit can affect sensor accuracy.
Battery Life: Ensure that your watch has enough battery to last through the night. To help with this, Pillow offers a handy battery reminder feature that you can enable.

If you ever notice that Pillow isn’t detecting sleep sessions as expected, these troubleshooting tips are a good place to start.

We Value Your Feedback

At Pillow, your experience matters to us. If you’re not satisfied with the sleep analysis produced by our automatic tracking, we offer a couple of easy ways for you to address it:

Re-Analyze Your Sleep: You can re-analyze your sleep data for the current day. Simply tap the re-analyze option at the bottom of the screen when you launch Pillow.
Report a Problem: Should you encounter any issues or have suggestions for improvement, you can report a problem directly from within the app. When you view the details of a sleep session, you’ll find the option to report an issue at the bottom of the sleep analysis view.

Your feedback helps us continuously refine our algorithms and improve Pillow to better serve your sleep tracking needs.

Your Privacy, Our Priority

We understand that privacy is paramount when it comes to personal health data. That’s why Pillow is designed with your security in mind:

Local Data Storage: All sleep session data is stored on your device, ensuring that your information remains private.
Encrypted iCloud Backups: If you choose to enable iCloud backups and synchronization, an encrypted copy of your data is stored in your iCloud storage space. This means that even when your data is backed up, it remains accessible only to you.

Our commitment to privacy ensures that you can use Pillow with confidence, knowing that your personal sleep data is secure and private.

Embracing a Better Night’s Sleep

Automatic Sleep Tracking with Pillow is more than just a feature—it’s a commitment to helping you understand your sleep better so you can improve your overall well-being. By effortlessly monitoring your sleep using advanced sensor data from your Apple Watch, Pillow provides a detailed, data-driven look at how you sleep. With insights into heart rate, respiratory rate, blood oxygen levels, and more, you gain a comprehensive view of your nightly rest, empowering you to make informed decisions about your sleep habits.

We designed Pillow to be user-friendly and intuitive, ensuring that tracking your sleep doesn’t become a chore but rather a seamless part of your nightly routine. Whether you’re a seasoned sleep tracker or just starting your journey toward better sleep, our automatic tracking feature is here to provide you with the information you need to sleep smarter and wake up refreshed.