Since the Apple Watch’s launch in 2015, the pace of medical research has been astonishing. Starting with abnormal heart rhythms, the capabilities of mobile health sensors extend well beyond heart health, detecting everything from diabetes to sleep apnea to Parkinson’s disease. Given that more than half a billion consumer wearables are shipped each year, the potential of the proverbial “doctor on your wrist” has never been higher.
Despite this futuristic potential, our day-to-day interactions with the brick-and-mortar healthcare system have hardly changed. A recent study showed only 0.89% of doctors incorporate wearable data into their practice. For most of us, the doctor-patient relationship is still defined by a 15-minute office visit—or perhaps a Zoom call—every few years.
We can do so much more. But reinventing medicine for the age of the sensor is a decades-long endeavor—so where do you start?
Why sleep?
Sleep is one of the most common health problems, yet surprisingly overlooked. At any given moment, 1 in 3 of US adults report getting insufficient sleep. Over our lifetime, 1 in 4 of us will suffer a sleep condition like insomnia or sleep apnea. Even in those more serious cases, 60-90% of people go undiagnosed by the current fee-for-service medical system.
Closing this gap can save both lives and dollars. Poor sleep is linked to 7 of the 15 leading causes of death in the US, including heart disease, cancer, stroke, accidents, diabetes, septicemia, and high blood pressure. It’s also linked to mental health, such as depression. All together, sleep and sleep-adjacent medical conditions represent $411B in total cost per year.
Empirical Sleep
Empirical Sleep is a small first step. Many apps track sleep. Empirical Sleep is different in that it distills data down to the minimum and instead focuses on simple actions that you can take to improve your sleep. These actions are based on the Sleep Hygiene Index, a scientific set of questions about behavior proven to correlate with sleep onset, quality, and duration.
Want to try it yourself? Download Empirical Sleep for Apple Watch today.
