Did you know that your Apple Watch can track the amount of time you spend during the day? Indeed, Apple Watch models can use the built-in light sensor to automatically detect when you are outside, record the amount of time you spend during the day, and this is labeled as a Health metric.
Time in the Day is important for a variety of health reasons, from vision and eye health, mood, sleep, and the important hormone Vitamin D, which the NIH says is linked to bone health, nerve health, and immune health – very important things!
So, you want to see how much time you spend during the day and add it to your Health metrics to update on Apple Watch? We’ll show you how.
How to Tell the Time of Day with Apple Watch & iPhone
Here’s how to access and see the amount of time you spend during the day using your Apple Watch:
- Open the “Health” app on your iPhone paired with Apple Watch
- Use the Search function and type “Daylight”
- Tap “Time of Day” to see your daytime data as received by Apple Watch
- Optionally, scroll down to “Time in Daylight” and tap “Pin to Summary” to add the Time in Daylight metric to your standard Health summary calculations
Apple notes that daylight hours provide health benefits, including improved vision and eye health, increased levels of Vitamin D, improved mood and sleep, and more.
As someone who spends a lot of time in cloudy and rainy areas (San Francisco and Seattle), a metric like this is important to me, because many people in these climates and places are Vitamin D deficient and I may be in that camp. And, as a tech worker who spends all working hours at a screen or desk, it’s not like there’s enough opportunity to be outdoors during work.
Apple’s “Time of Day” blurb says the following about this feature and why it’s important:
“Time in Daylight is a measure of time spent in sunlight. For children, spending 80-120 minutes outside each day can help reduce the risk of myopia or nearsightedness. For adults, spending about 20 minutes outside every day has many mental and emotional health benefits.
Time outside allows your eyes to focus on objects more distant, reducing eye strain associated with working on something close, such as a screen or sketchbook. Sunlight also helps your body produce vitamin D, which your body needs to absorb calcium, protect your bones, teeth, and muscles and support your immune system.
If not blocked, Apple Watch can automatically record a limited amount of time in Daylight in Health.”
That last part is important, because if you have long sleeves to cover the Apple Watch it won’t be able to detect that you’re outside, so you can adjust the clothing or the exposure of the Apple Watch as needed.
My personal data for the past week is pretty good because lately I’ve spent a lot of time outside with friends, family, and hiking, but when I review some of the months, especially these early winter, fall, and early spring months, Daylight Saving Time is almost non-existent. It’s understandable because almost no one enjoys being outside in the rain in 45 degree temperatures, as it usually happens every day in Seattle for 10 months of the year, but after seeing this metric so low during those times, it makes me realize that I will have to commit to more time outside regardless of the weather.
Some things I plan to do personally, to improve my Noon Study Time:
- Spend more time working outside on nice weather days, if it’s not raining, take the laptop and take it out for a bit!
- Take regular breaks outside, to focus on something far away, then back to my screen
- Make an effort to walk outside, rain or shine
- Exercise outside often
- Get involved in extra outdoor activities
As for taking my MacBook Air outside and working in direct sunlight, I found that it overheated quickly. Remember, the latest MacBook Air models don’t have a cooling fan, so they don’t have a way to cool quickly or ignore the heat of direct sunlight. This creates a challenge, because even on a mild 70-degree day the MacBook Air heats up quickly in direct sunlight and quickly grinds to a halt as the M chip draws power to prevent overheating. Fortunately, many of the tips I mentioned in the past about keeping a MacBook cool in hot weather still apply today, perhaps even more so with a fanless MacBook Air (or a MacBook Neo for that matter), so I try to keep the Mac itself out of direct sunlight, and well ventilated. If you have a MacBook Pro cooling fan, you may find some of these tips useful, but not essential, because that internal cooling fan makes a big difference.
I have been a daily user of the Apple Watch since the launch of the device, I gave it up for a while, and I chose it again for several years now, mainly for tracking activity and health metrics, but still I did not know this feature existed, so do not be upset if you have never heard of the ability to track the time during the day or. It wasn’t until I read an article over at 9to5mac that mentioned this as a health metric that I got it working, so a big shout out to them for bringing awareness to this feature.
Did you know that Apple Watch can track daylight and time of day? Do you care to keep track of the time in the daytime metric on your Apple Watch? Let us know your thoughts and ideas in the comments!