Dev Log #4: For Everyone Who Takes the Watch Off at Night

I don’t wear my Apple Watch at night. Since our baby arrived, my nights come in pieces, and a sleep score every morning only told me what I already knew. Then it handed me a number to worry about for the rest of the day. I didn’t need a grade for a night I couldn’t change, so the watch started staying on the nightstand. It has stayed there ever since.

That one habit ended up shaping the biggest change in Astrea 1.1.

Empty states everywhere

Before we built Astrea, I went through the recovery apps we’d be compared to. I wanted to see my own data in them. What I mostly saw were empty cards. No night recorded meant no sleep, and in most of them no recovery reading either. Screen after screen asked me to wear the watch to bed and come back tomorrow. For someone who never will, tomorrow doesn’t come, and the app is useless.

And then our own app did the same thing to me. In Astrea 1.0, the Sleep card sat empty every single morning. We’d made the empty state as kind as we could, but it was still an empty card at the top of my day.

I’m not the only one

Before changing anything, I wanted to know whether this was just me. So I read through threads on r/AppleWatch where people explain why they take the watch off at night. The same reasons kept coming up:

• The data adds stress. One person called it “just more data to add stress in your life.”
• It’s uncomfortable on the wrist in bed, and some people can’t fall asleep with it on.
• Wearing it around the clock irritates their skin.

The people who keep it on mostly want one of two things: a silent alarm, or overnight HRV to decide whether to push a workout. And plenty sit somewhere in between. They wear it on nights with an early alarm, or charge it overnight. If you’ve ever felt your sleep score get into your head, you’ll recognise the first reason.

What changed in Astrea 1.1

• One question when you set up the app. Do you wear your watch at night? Pick Yes, most nights, Sometimes or No, only by day. Your answer decides what you see each morning, and you can change it any time in Profile.
• The Today screen adapts to your nights. After a week of nights with the watch off, the Sleep card makes room for your training week: seven days in a row, each workout shown with a small icon for its sport. The first morning your watch records a night again, Sleep quietly returns.
• Recovery works from your day. On mornings after a night with the watch off, Recovery uses two daytime readings: your heart rate variability (HRV), measured while you were resting, and your resting heart rate. It compares them with your own earlier daytime readings. A small label says Measured during the day, so you always know where the number comes from.
• Three calm morning cards. A check-in that asks how you feel and saves your answer to Apple Health. How much daylight you’ve had so far, compared with your usual by this time of day. And today’s workout, once you’ve done one. Each card simply describes your day.
• You choose what the Today screen shows. Tap Customise view at the bottom of the Today screen to hide cards or drag them into a new order. You can hide Sleep too, however you wear your watch. That setting applies to the Today screen alone, and Trends and the Journal keep your full sleep history.

One rule held through all of it: nothing in the app suggests you should wear the watch to bed. If you wear it, Astrea reads your nights. If you take it off, Astrea works with your days.

Do you wear your watch at night, or did you stop at some point? I’d love to know why. Write us at info@astrea.fit.

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