Why couch potatoes should wear an Apple Watch too

Apple likes to advertise its smartwatch on the wrists of sporty people–admittedly, they all look good–engaged in some physical activity against a breathtaking scene somewhere in the mountains or on the beach. This easily gives the impression that the Apple Watch is intended exclusively for athletes and fitness enthusiasts.

The Apple Watch is not only interesting for athletes, but also for anyone who has nothing to do with sports. It collects vital data and can use this data to provide valuable insights into your own health. Some emergency notifications have already saved the lives of more than a few people. Hwre are the Apple Watch features you can make the most of every day.

Heart-rate notifications

Most of the life-saving stories we’ve heard from our readers and followers concern two inconspicuous controls in the Heart settings of the Watch app on the iPhone. The Apple Watch can recognize if your heart rate is too low or too high based on your normal heart rate and issue a warning.

The system recommends a setting of 40 BPM (beats per minute) if your heart rate is too low and 110 BPM if it is too high. However, you can adjust them upwards in both cases.

How to set heart rate notifications: Go to the Watch app on the iPhone and then to the Heart setting. Scroll to approximately the center of the screen and activate three notifications: Irregular Rhythm, High Heart Rate, and Low Heart Rate.

Ideally, you’ll never get a notification regarding these, but if you get one, don’t take it lightly, and if in doubt, ask your doctor what they mean. For example, the irregular rhythm notification may indicate an atrial fibrillation period; the Apple Watch can give the doctor information about your condition.

ECG measurement

Although the Apple Watch produces a single-lead ECG measurement, a twelve-lead ECG is standard in the medical field. But even with its limitations, the ECG of the Apple Watch is accurate; the smartwatch from Apple correctly recognizes a period of atrial fibrillation in 98.3 to 99.6 percent of cases, according to Apple.

To ensure that you can access ECG measurements quickly, open the Watch app on your iPhone and switch to the Heart setting. Make sure that the ECG app is installed on the watch.

If you now want to record the ECG, all you have to do is open the corresponding app from the Apple Watch home screen; it will give you instructions on how to use it. The results can be found after the measurement in the Health app on the iPhone.

Monitor sleep

Since watchOS 8, Apple Watch has been able to monitor sleep phases, but the “Sleep” focus means much more. I recommend everyone take a few minutes to familiarize themselves with the settings and adjust the focus to suit their own needs, as sleep monitoring on the Apple Watch offers several advantages.

Even if you are not interested in your own sleep phases, the Apple Watch measures your wrist temperature, breathing rate, blood oxygen, and heart rate during the night. These measurements flow (seven days after activation) into various analyses (more on this below). The Apple Watch can even estimate an ovulation period. Since watchOS 10, the Apple Watch can warn of sleep apnea.

You can also set up a relaxation period in the Sleep focus, for example, half an hour before going to bed. The Apple Watch will notify you at the appropriate time and may indicate that you need to charge the watch before going to sleep.

You can also set up all kinds of automations via the Home app: Overhead light off, only a covered light source somewhere in the corner, relaxing music, muting all notifications, and possibly blocking social media apps (via Screen Time).

Fall detection and accident detection

If you have a serious fall or are involved in an accident, the Apple Watch can make an automatic emergency call for you. The corresponding slider is available in the Emergency call SOS settings. Make sure that the Accident detection slider is turned on.

Stand ring

The Stand ring on the Apple Watch is a little pesky. While calories burned and minutes of exercise are self-explanatory to most (it’s always better to burn more calories than less), many find the Stand reminders to be more of a nuisance.

But behind these disturbances lie findings about the human metabolism: the longer a person is in a sedative position (lying or sitting), the less fat-processing enzymes the body produces. These are mainly produced by your muscles, and when muscles do not move, fewer of these enzymes are produced, and the fat from food is only broken down insufficiently or not at all.

Jim Martin / Foundry

The processing of glucose in the blood is also slowed down during long periods of rest. This increases the risk of diabetes, and cholesterol levels can also deteriorate with a sedentary lifestyle.

When it comes to standing, the Apple Watch analyses the movement times within an hour, and if the user has not moved in the past fifty minutes, it sends a reminder. This reminder should not be seen as a reproach, but as a call for a break in your routine. Get a refreshing beverage from the kitchen, or make another trip to the toilet if you’re in the office. You can take it a step further than simply getting up: do five push-ups or three squats. This will activate your back or buttock muscles, the largest muscle groups in the human body. You will boost your fat and sugar metabolism, again and again, every hour. Your body will thank you.

Hearing health

The Apple Watch also warns you of noisy surroundings. Sure, you’ll notice that it’s loud yourself, but these warnings are systematized in the Health overview and in a chronological context; the system automatically evaluates whether the ambient noise is still okay for you or whether you should pay more attention to your hearing health. You don’t have to do anything to set up this evaluation. It runs automatically via microphones built into the Apple Watch.

Washing your hands

At WWDC 2020, in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, the manufacturer unveiled a cool feature: the Apple Watch from Series 4 onwards recognizes that the user is washing their hands based on typical movement patterns and noises and starts a 20-second countdown. Proper hand hygiene can prevent respiratory and gastrointestinal diseases.

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You can also activate a hand-washing reminder in settings: as soon as you arrive home and stay there for several minutes, the Apple Watch reminds you to wash your hands.

How to set the countdown and reminders for hand washing: Open the Watch app on your iPhone and look for the Handwashing setting. There, tick the box opposite “Allow messages” and switch the two sliders “Timer for hand washing” and “Reminders for hand washing” to green.

Vital signs

Vital Signs is a new feature since watchOS 10 that doesn’t actually bring any new functions, but bundles the existing ones and displays the data from them in a clear form.

There is not much you can set in Vital Signs, only the Sleep focus for your habits. When this focus is activated, the watch automatically measures your wrist temperature, heart rate during sleep, oxygen saturation, breathing rate, and sleep duration. You can simply activate the notifications in the Vital Signs section of the Watch app on the iPhone.

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To help raise your awareness, place a large widget on the home screen of your iPhone that displays your vital signs. This way, you can see at a glance whether everything is okay.

To add a Vital widget, tap and hold a spot on your iPhone’s Home screen to put the screen in edit mode. Tap the Edit button at the upper left, and then tap Add Widget. In the Search bar, type “Health” and then tap the Health icon that appears. You have three widgets to choose from: Overnight Vitals, Weekly Vitals, and Cycle Tracking. You can add all three if you want.