Sleep score has changed for the worse since iOS upgrade

I have the similar issue on my Ultra 2 since watchOS 26

Sitting and reading the newspaper on my iPad after breakfast is seen as a nap, as well as getting to bed early in the evening, just because I'm sitting in front of the computer streaming content, without hardly moving in my chair.

Or checking the time on my watch in the night, turning around after that and falling asleep right away is counted as being awake for 20-60min.

watchOS 26.2 showed some improvements for two nights and then continued to give false readings.

My 3rd party sleep tracking, which uses the same data from the Health App, is showing more realistic results.

All effected users should all let Apple know about this issue by using the Feedback link, I have already submitted mine.

Feedback - Apple Watch - Apple

Same experience on my side.

I'm using AutoSleep since the Apple Watch 5 came out, and it shows more realistic sleep results now on my Ultra 2, although the Apple Sleep app uses the same data from the watch, which has watchOS 26.2 installed.

I have just made this complaint to Apple Support. For the past year, I have worn a Whoop band on my right wrist and an apple watch (series 6 until two weeks ago and now series 11 (same band type, same tightness)) on my left. Until the 26 updates, Whoop and Health data were very similar. Then immediately after the OS update late last year, the Health app sleep data materially diverged from Whoop. Very regularly 50-100% differences, often doubling my time awake. Only once in the past two months has the Whoop data and the Health data matched within 15 minutes of each other -- and that was during a night when I had just four hours of sleep owing to an early start the next morning.

Seems to me that my individual experience is a pretty decent controlled experiment.

Complain here>>>I recently upgraded my Series 6 watch to Series 11 at a cost of £399. I did this largely because later this year my Whoop subscription expires and my intention was to not renew because until the new iOS and watchOS upgrades late last year, the Sleep app in Health mirrored almost minute for minute the data provided by Whoop (not linked). Then with the upgrade, Health now has me awake twice as long as Whoop on most nights. Deep sleep is often 4%, vs 40% Restorative sleep in Whoop. You have done something to the calculations on movement that has ruined the experience for me and I feel pretty aggrieved at having just bought a new apple product. Please fix<<

My sleep scores after 26.2 have dropped precipitously and I am no longer using the Apple Watch to track my sleep. I was told on ChatGPT that they changed the tracking protocol to be more conservative. It mistakenly rates some sleep as awake. I initially started tracking my sleep to see if I was getting 7-8 hours sleep even though I was occasionally awake for a while most nights. With 26.2 my sleep dropped to 4-5 hours per night and my awake time increased to 2.5 to 4.5 hours per night. I don't need to aggravation of this so I am ceasing to use the watch to track sleep. I have seen sleep improvement the first two nights without the watch on my wrist. It seems to me giving people worse ratings and tracking might not be the best way to be people to use your watch.

Readers--

if this were a pervasive issue, the forums would be swamped -- completely overwhelmed with users complaining about it. That is not the case.

My watch reported more deep sleep last night than it has ever reported. As far as I can tell, this feature on MY setup is working great, which suggests there is not a pervasive issue with this version of the software itself.

When you have a complaint that SEEMS to be a software version issue, but others are NOT having such problems, the issue most likely lies elsewhere.

That is why I posted my watch model, in hopes of other posting theirs and possibly finding some other correlation, such as the problem following a particular model watch. My band is a fabric band with velcro closure.

It seems to me the "weak link" in recording correct sleep data is having the band adequately tight to get good readings, but not so tight as to wake you up..

it would seem prudent at this point to start calling Apple Support, and see if they have anything clever to say, collected from other callers or from some internal documents we are not privy to.

Official Apple Support

<< unlikely to go back to using it unless Apple updates to tracking protocol. >>

Readers and responders here are all other users like you. Most Apple employees are expressly prohibited from responding here, so there are likely very few Apple employees reading these forums.

Readers want you to have the best solutions for your situation as possible, regardless of what kinds of devices you decide to use (or not use).

if you want Apple employees to consider your situation, you should post your thoughts here:

Product Feedback - Apple

I called Apple Support prior to posting. They were helpful but the final conclusion was the watch was fine and it must be me. There is a psychological element here. Many people suffer from insomnia at various levels and times. That is why I started to use my Apple Watch to track sleep in the first place - to determine how I really slept. I was pleasantly surprised that I could be awake for times at night and still get 7-8 hours sleep. I would feel fine under those circumstances. That is why I was so surprised when the times changed so much when I switched to 26.2. The psychological benefit disappeared. I was disturbed with what my watch was sharing on my sleep so decided to quit using it. My sleep has improved and unlikely to go back to using it unless Apple updates to tracking protocol.

I agree with the assertions noted on the impact of this tech for those with insomnia. I no longer use this part of the watch. Before the upgrade, I was still able to get nightly "scores" on my sleep, which seemed reasonable. After the upgrade, the daily sleep bargraph disappeared, and the sleep ringchart bubbled up...with "No Data" to report. Not wanting to believe that my sleep had devolved to "No Data" I tried to get any sleep info out of my watch and software upgrade. No luck. A call into the Apple Support line was not totally unpleasant, but it was not fruitful. The frustrating part of this was that the old Sleep protocol prior to 26, seemed to be working well. Well enough that I didn't challenge the validity of the numbers. My question to Apple would be "If this new and improved version of the Sleep tracking capabilities is better, what can be said about the old version...was it just producing inaccurate "harmless" sleep scores.

[Edited by Moderator]

Same issue for me: awake time increased by an average of 20 minutes per night. Change coincided precisely with the IOS 26 download. I notified Apple. One user suggested manually editing your Awake data. I don't see how you can know with confidence when you're awake unless you lose sleep to track your awake time. Silly.

It's also possible it's tracking correctly now, but wasn't before. How can you know?

I have noticed less REM but the biggest issue is reporting that I’m have been awake while I’ve actually been asleep and my deep sleep periods have completely disappeared.

I am sorry for your experience, but I too have come to the conclusion to not have faith in the sleep tracking capabilities of the watch as promoted. Perhaps Apple should choose another less damaging/more reliable feature to sell on the device.

Thanks for sharing this. I am not doing a test vs another sleep tracker but I have had the same changes in awake:sleep ratio. I had an Apple support person who helped me on another issue tell me that what I was experiencing were not the Apple Watch. Guess I am going to start looking around for another tracking watch.

My initial reaction to your post was to write: "You're Dreaming".

...but that is obviously the reverse of what is being reported.

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There was notification is the upgrade for iOS 26.2 that suggested sleep scoring had changed.

But detecting less REM sleep has not been reported here.

It is not likely to be a software error -- you may in fact be dreaming less these last few nights. By fiddling with the Health app on your phone, you can compare current to Average REM amounts over time, weekly, monthly, or 6 month-ly.