Withings Sleep can now detect signs of sleep apnea

February 24, 2020

You probably already know Withings Sleep. I told you about it when it came out. If I’ll tell you more about it today, it’s because Withings is launching a great monitoring update. Withings Sleep will now allow users to track additional data that can help them identify serious conditions such as sleep apnea.

Withings Sleep and the sleep doctor Pierre Escourrou

The company has teamed up with sleep physician Pierre Escourrou, from the sleep laboratory at Paris-Béclère hospital, to develop the respiratory disturbance detection function of the Withings Sleep. These range from monitoring movement, breathing, heart rate to snoring. The objective is to monitoring the intensity of the disturbances.

Respiratory disorders during sleep occur when you have trouble breathing while you sleep. This can be common, but it can also go unnoticed. Many people also confuse this with a simple snoring problem. However, if they become more intense and remain unnoticed. They can turn into dangerous illnesses like sleep apnea.

The Health Mate app

The Health Mate app will assess disturbances from the bottom up and will also provide monthly reports where you can see them all at a glance; which will allow you to see if you may need medical attention. It will also provide you with information about sleep apnea and how sleep disorders can affect your sleep, blood pressure and physical fitness.

Withings mainly uses respiratory disturbances to inform sleep users about the signs of sleep apnea; the company is currently seeking a medical certificate for sleep apnea screening by the end of the year.

Certification of Withings Sleep in progress

If Withings succeeds in obtaining its certification for the detection of sleep apnea, this would give it a significant advantage over its competitors; like Fitbit at Apple, who are also working on detecting sleep apnea.

The update is available now for all Withings Sleep users. It is obviously free for everyone. You can also download the new version of the Withings Health Mate app from the Apple App Store and Google Play.

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The easiest to install and configure, application ergonomics, compatibility, valuable information, nothing to wear

Summary Who would not like to know if they are affected by sleep apnea, how long they actually slept or snored last night and what are the phases of sleep they go through? This is the type of information that the Withings Sleep Analyzer offers to provide you, and it does it well.

If you’ve ever watched or read reports about sleep on TV or the Internet, going to a specialized sleep lab comes up regularly. Unless they have a very big problem at this level, no one will go so far as to ask for this kind of establishment simply out of curiosity or to optimize their sleep. And according to professionals, sleep is important for our health and well-being.

Comfort yourselves dear curious people who are looking to know if your nights are as restful as they should be. Connected objects come to your rescue. Withings specializes in the design of health and well-being oriented objects and we have already been able to test the connected BPM Core blood pressure monitor. This time, they offered us to perform the test of their “Sleep Analyzer” sleep sensor. What can he bring you?

In the sleep laboratories, the patient is surrounded by sensors, monitored by a camera and a microphone. Nothing like this in the Sleep Analyzer box where we discover a “carpet” 60 cm long by 19 cm wide and a few millimeters thick. A 3-meter cable comes out to connect to a fairly discreet power adapter.

Unpacking

The mat, or rather the pneumatic sensor since that’s what it is, is not rigid except for the end that can be seen when lifting the fabric. Its finesse means that it does not lift the mattress enough to hamper the user. Note that it is possible to remove the cover to wash it although it is never in contact with the body.

Sensor

The sensor is in fact placed between the base and the mattress in a horizontal direction. It is necessary to lie down beforehand and to locate where the chest is located, it is at the level of the heart that it must be located. It is placed at the edge of the box spring.

Bedspring

The Sleep Analyzer is compatible with most mattresses up to 40cm whether they are spring, latex or foam with the exception of inflatable mattresses or waterbeds. Ditto for the box springs, it can be placed on the floor or on a slatted base. Here it was used with a fairly thick mattress, 29 cm, and of firm texture, which did not interfere with its operation.

Mattress

Once in place, the startup and configuration is done through the brand’s Health Mate application via a smartphone or tablet equipped with iOS 12 or Android 8.0 (or their later versions). The application synchronizes via Bluetooth to transmit the name of your WiFi network to the sensor. The wizard is very easy to perform, even for those who are not comfortable with the computer tool.

Calibration begins once the device is connected. It is necessary not to use the bed for 10 minutes while you can hear a vibration of the device which (apparently) detects at what pressure it must be inflated. Rest assured, this only happens during calibration. No vibration takes place during sleep. On the other hand, Wifi is systematically switched off when the user is sleeping.

During this phase, the assistant continues to explain to you what measures he is able to perform and suggests activating them.

It only remains to sleep. Everything is automated and there is no need to tell the sensor or the app your bedtime or wake-up time. As surprising as it may seem, and despite some doubts the first night, the sensor detects perfectly when you sit in your bed and, on double beds, perfectly differentiates the presence of the user on whose side the sensor is placed, of his possible companion.

This raises a number of other questions. How will he know when sleep has really started if the user is reading a book for a few minutes and how will he interpret getting up at night to drink, use the bathroom or any other reason that would interrupt the night ?

We will not have an answer to this question, but in the morning, after having waited a few minutes, when the application opens, the data is present. If you have other Withings devices such as a connected scale or the blood pressure monitor, the data is perfectly separated as in this example. From the outset, we can see if we have slept enough.