Sleep has always been one of the harder things to measure. Steps and heart rate are straightforward, but how do you capture the quality of a night’s rest in a single glance? Apple’s answer is the Sleep Score. Introduced with iOS 26 and watchOS 26, it takes the sleep data already logged by your devices and distills it into a number that represents how restorative your night actually was.
The calculation looks at how long you slept, whether your bedtime was consistent, how often you woke up, and how much time was spent in different stages, like deep, core, and REM. Once the algorithm runs through those factors, the result is placed into one of five categories: Excellent, High, OK, Low, or Very Low. It is Apple’s way of turning raw sleep patterns into something easier to understand, making it clear where your habits are strong and where they could improve.
What sets this rollout apart is that Apple has not kept the feature confined to its own hardware. You don’t need an Apple Watch to see your Sleep Score. If you already track sleep with a Garmin, Withings, or Amazfit, the Health app will now generate Apple’s version of the score using that data. All it requires is iOS 26, no extra setup. In fact, once you update, the app goes back and applies the new scoring system to your past sleep history, too.
Naturally, the most seamless experience comes on an Apple Watch, where you can view the score directly on your wrist. That support starts with Apple Watch Series 6, Apple Watch SE 2, and all Apple Watch Ultra models running watchOS 26. But the bigger surprise is that Apple is letting its Health app handle third-party wearables with almost the same attention, creating a bridge that has rarely existed before.
Apple says this feature is backed by more than 5 million nights of data from the Heart and Movement Study, alongside guidance from global sleep experts. That research base gives the Sleep Score credibility, while the decision to extend it beyond Apple’s own lineup makes it one of the most consumer-friendly health updates in recent memory. For anyone who prefers another brand’s watch but still wants Apple’s clean take on their sleep, this update finally makes that possible.
