Apple has turned sleep into a "game." It's a good thing, but it also brings unexpected problems.
How did you sleep last night?
In the past, we could only give vague impressions like "I slept okay" or "I slept poorly", or share a screenshot of the sleep structure from a smartwatch.
Now, Apple Watch users can give a rather definite answer:
I got a 100 - point sleep quality score today!
Compared with the lackluster Apple Watch S11, the new sleep scoring function in watchOS 26 is a more welcome update for everyone. Suddenly, it makes the act of "sleeping" more interesting.
What is the sleep score?
People spend one - third of their lives sleeping. The quality of sleep affects mental state in the short term and has a profound impact on physical health in the long run.
Therefore, from fitness trackers costing a few hundred yuan to smart rings costing thousands of yuan, the sleep monitoring function is almost a standard feature. Every night, it maps your sleep quality into a seemingly scientific chart to reflect the quality of your sleep each night.
But like other physical indicators such as electrocardiogram and blood oxygen concentration, the sleep structure is just "raw data". Most ordinary users can only make a rough estimate of their sleep quality from it and have difficulty grasping the long - term changes in sleep quality.
The "sleep score" emerged as the times require. Every morning, the Apple Watch uses a number to directly tell you whether you slept well last night and whether your body has had sufficient rest and recovery.
In addition to the evaluation and score, Apple will also generate a short evaluation of the previous night's sleep situation and explain the reasons for the score.
According to the score, Apple has divided sleep quality into five levels: excellent, high, average, low, and very low, allowing users to more clearly and intuitively understand the overall situation of their sleep quality.
So, what criteria does Apple use to score users' sleep quality? The scoring system has three indicators, which show what aspects Apple focuses on:
- Duration, accounting for 50 points
- Bedtime, accounting for 30 points
- Interruption, accounting for 20 points
Since work and rest schedules and sleep habits vary from person to person, Apple's scoring basis is not a universal standard. Instead, it very individually compares each night's sleep data with previous historical data for scoring.
Some night - owl netizens who go to bed at 2 a.m. every day are recognized as "going to bed on time" and get high scores.
Apple said that they developed this function in cooperation with the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, the National Sleep Foundation of the United States, and the World Sleep Society, and also used 5 million nights of sleep data collected from the Apple Heart and Movement Research Project.
However, the more discussable aspect of this function lies in its inherent sharing, competition - the "gamification" attribute.
How does sleep become a "game"?
The sleep score is not a brand - new concept. Many other smart brands have already provided it, and there are also third - party apps on the Apple Watch that can achieve scoring.
But since September this year, Apple has pushed this function to all Apple Watch S6, SE 2, and all subsequent Ultra models, allowing the large existing user base to directly get the first - party sleep scoring experience on their watches, and there is also a common standard for comparison.
So on Xiaohongshu, we can see many very similar posts: the first picture is an iPhone screenshot of the sleep score. When you click in, you will find that the comment section is also flooded with screenshots of sleep scores shared by everyone:
Some people simply share their sleep situation, some show off their "perfect - score sleep", and some screenshots with scores in the twenties or thirties can shock many netizens.
Actually, it's not just on Xiaohongshu. My friends and I often send each other screenshots of sleep scores. Besides sharing daily life, it's mainly out of a competitive and show - off mentality, wanting to prove that we "can sleep well". For modern people full of anxiety, sleeping well usually means a good life outlook, few worries, and enough rest time.
Through a scoring system, Apple has turned sleeping, something everyone can't do without, into a "game", encouraging you to get as high a score as possible.
This can be a "single - player game": after continuously getting low scores, adjust your work and rest and sleep habits to improve sleep quality and scores; it can also be a "multi - player game": get a high score and show it off in front of friends or on social media.
Everyone knows the importance of a good work - rest schedule and regular exercise, but it's always not that easy to be self - disciplined. Apple's approach is to "gamify" it.
The exercise rings on the Apple Watch are the most famous example - turning the originally abstract amount of exercise into a visual "ring", turning the originally boring exercise into a game task of closing the ring, and making many Apple Watch users "get moving".
Now, Apple has applied a similar mechanism to sleep. The originally elusive sleep quality has become a score, encouraging users to improve their sleep quality, and users can clearly perceive their progress through the score trend.
This form is not uncommon. The well - received "Pokémon Sleep" is essentially another enhanced version of sleep scoring. Going to bed early and getting up early can not only get high scores but also raise cute Pokémon.
Some scientific studies have found that self - monitoring is a key technology to promote behavior change, and the quantitative score is the most intuitive form of self - monitoring, which is very suitable for use in the field of mobile health, such as physical exercise and sleep hygiene. It can provide strong positive feedback and promote healthy behaviors through social comparison and the drive for belonging.
The Apple Watch gives a score and a comment every day, which can significantly increase user engagement, encourage users to check the score every morning, and promote long - term behavior change.
Moreover, by adding some fun to sleeping, Apple has also increased the user stickiness of the Apple Watch.
The score is not the key, sound sleep is
Not everyone welcomes the arrival of the sleep score. Some netizens think that scoring sleep is really anxiety - inducing.
Actually, after sleep monitoring became popular among ordinary people through smartwatches, psychologists quickly discovered a new phenomenon - "Orthosomnia".
Sleep quality was originally just a personal feeling. Now, there are very scientific indicators to define whether you slept well enough and whether your body has recovered. People are more willing to trust these seemingly scientific numbers.
Some users find that their sleep is so poor after wearing the Apple Watch. They have almost no deep sleep and always wake up in the middle of the night. They will inevitably feel quite anxious and want to change their poor sleep situation.
But like insomnia, the psychological burden of "wanting to sleep well" can easily affect one's sleep situation.
For example, the more you want to sleep well, the worse you will sleep; for another example, after preparing various "hardware aids" such as melatonin, incense, and new pillows, you may develop a dependence reaction. Even, if you happen not to wear the Apple Watch one night and don't see the data, you will feel even more anxious...
Even more exaggerated, we find that some users, after waking up and finding that their sleep score last night was not good, will form the assumption that "I will be listless today", which affects their mood for the whole day, while in fact, their body may have recovered well.
The sleep score, which can more directly show the quality of sleep, will undoubtedly exacerbate these psychological conditions.
This is not just a problem with the sleep score. In fact, when technology is deeply integrated with our lives, we will inevitably encounter these problems - forgetting to bring the watch to record when going out for a run makes us feel like we haven't run; being extremely anxious if we don't punch in on Duolingo for a day...
Originally, these tools were created to make us better people, but sometimes they make us care too much about the result rather than focus on and enjoy the whole process.
I believe Apple also considered these factors when designing the sleep score. They didn't make sleep a more gamified function like the "exercise rings", weakening the negative feedback feeling brought by low scores.
Apple's sleep score is mainly encouraging. Lifehacker compared the sleep scores of several different wearable devices and found that the scores given by the Apple Watch are basically the highest.
Looking back at Apple's scoring criteria, the uncontrollable "interruption" accounts for the least proportion, and the other two, "duration" and "bedtime", are more things that users can achieve subjectively.
This also conveys Apple's definition of high - quality sleep: regular work and rest and enough sleep time.
Moreover, whether it's the Apple Watch or other detection devices, they can't always accurately reflect the real sleep situation. One's own feeling is the most reliable.
Ultimately, the score is just a tool to help us understand ourselves. The score is not important. The real value lies in that it can push us back to the most basic goal - sleeping soundly and waking up energetic.
This article is from the WeChat official account "ifanr" (ID: ifanr), author: Su Weihong. It is published by 36Kr with authorization.