Sleep tracking draining Apple Watch battery

I have an Apple Watch Series 4, which I got secondhand in almost brand new condition about a year ago. I have it on the most recent Watch OS update. I use it in Sleep Mode to track my sleep overnight, and I charge it up to 100% before bed each night. When I wake up in the morning about ten hours later, it has gone down to around 30%, sometimes even as low as 10%. I don’t understand how tracking my sleep uses significantly more watch battery than during the day when I wear it all the time and track exercises etc. I’ve seen a few people having similar problems, does anyone have any idea if I can do something to fix this? Obviously I could just not track my sleep but I find it very useful.

Apple Watch Series 4, watchOS 7

Posted on Oct 23, 2020 8:50 AM

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Posted on Oct 29, 2020 7:51 AM

itsquietuptown wrote:

UPDATE - I have found the problem. I have always been in the habit of turning my phone off overnight and leaving it downstairs. One night, I didn’t do this and left it on and charging. In the morning my watch had 87% charge! I think the issue was that when my phone was off overnight, my watch spent the night trying to connect to it as well as tracking my sleep, which drained the battery.

Excellent detective work!


I'd note that an advantage to leaving your phone on overnight is that it will then automatically back up to iCloud while you sleep.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Oct 29, 2020 7:51 AM in response to itsquietuptown

itsquietuptown wrote:

UPDATE - I have found the problem. I have always been in the habit of turning my phone off overnight and leaving it downstairs. One night, I didn’t do this and left it on and charging. In the morning my watch had 87% charge! I think the issue was that when my phone was off overnight, my watch spent the night trying to connect to it as well as tracking my sleep, which drained the battery.

Excellent detective work!


I'd note that an advantage to leaving your phone on overnight is that it will then automatically back up to iCloud while you sleep.

Oct 29, 2020 2:37 AM in response to itsquietuptown

UPDATE - I have found the problem. I have always been in the habit of turning my phone off overnight and leaving it downstairs. One night, I didn’t do this and left it on and charging. In the morning my watch had 87% charge! I think the issue was that when my phone was off overnight, my watch spent the night trying to connect to it as well as tracking my sleep, which drained the battery.

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Sleep tracking draining Apple Watch battery

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