Samsung is rolling out a new feature to Galaxy Watch 5 and Galaxy Watch 6 users in South Korea
It will help detect the symptoms of sleep apnea in the early stages
People with this medical condition stop breathing during sleep
Samsung has announced a new feature in the Samsung Health Monitor app that will enable the detection of sleep apnea. The feature has already been approved by Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS). It will be available early next year for South Korean users of the Galaxy Watch 5 and Galaxy Watch 6 series.
How does sleep apnea detection work?
Samsung hopes to enable more people to detect symptoms of this disease in its early stages, which often go undiagnosed and untreated. Galaxy Watch with BioActive sensors will be able to identify moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea. First, they will monitor your blood oxygen levels while you sleep. They will then analyze how the detected values of oxygen levels in the blood change and obtain an estimated apnea-hypopnea index (AHI). It indicates the number of apneas per hour of sleep. In order to determine if you are suffering from sleep apnea symptoms, you will need to sleep with the watch at least twice in ten days, and each time the sleep should be longer than 4 hours.
Sleep apnea syndrome is a relatively common, but relatively serious disease that threatens a person with a high risk of developing cardiovascular diseases. Apnea means complete cessation of breathing for at least 10 seconds. Hypopnea is a similar phenomenon; in this case, it is a partial narrowing of the airways, leading to restricted airflow. Both are also accompanied by reduced oxygen levels in the blood, which makes the watch able to register this condition.
Other symptoms of this syndrome include snoring, which the South Korean giant’s watches have been able to successfully detect for several years. This new function is thus added to many others that actively warn the wearer of the aforementioned smart watch about factors that threaten their health. However, we must not forget that this is only an informational function and does not replace traditional diagnostic methods.
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We also have no further information on when this feature will be available for customers outside of South Korea, and Samsung itself is unable to influence this, as any such new feature must pass through the country’s regulatory authorities.
Author of the article
Matyáš Hřebík
2023-10-08 10:00:00
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