I have several chronic autoimmune conditions, and my Apple Watch has saved my butt on multiple occasions because it passively tracks so many things that I can use as a data set when my health goes sideways. For example, I was able to figure out that I had chronic sinus tachycardia because it was recording my heart rate and showing it sitting above 100 even when I was sitting at my desk or walking down the hall to the bathroom. It was also able to show my episodes of vasovagal syncope (Tl;dr: your heart rate going from 140 to 40 in 6 seconds makes you almost pass out) in a way that I could easily show my doctor to get more thorough tests and a beta blocker.

Now, with the new sleep tracking, I’ve realized that my respiratory rate while I’m sleeping is extremely slow (like not unusual to be 8 breaths a minute) and my deep sleep is… well less than 10 minutes is not unusual for me. So I’m in the process of figuring out whether all of that is due to sleep apnea, or it yet another dysautonomia condition we need to tackle.

I mean seriously, this tiny wrist computer is about as close as I can get to a scanner from Star Trek, and I genuinely don’t know how I would possibly keep track of all of my oddities without it.