Auto-sleep feature on the Microsoft Band

The title of the blog is actually incorrect, as it’s more of a Microsoft Health feature rather than the Band.

Let me explain, as well as dispel some myths around the feature.

Late last week a new version of the Microsoft Health app was released that introduced the auto-sleep detection feature. Fantastic news, everyone was excited! However after installing the updated app there was no firmware update for the Band. There was a fair bit of chatter about the update not working, or the firmware coming later.

Most nights I sleep about 5-6 hours and it’s enough to get me by. Last week in particular had been a bit exhausting as I’d been in Seattle the week before, had a couple of evening functions and overall was just more tired than normal. I went to bed a few hours earlier on Friday night and thought I’d have a nap, wake up, enable the Band sleep tracking, then go back to sleep.

That didn’t happen. I slept for over 8 hours straight (that’s a big thing for me).

Later that day however when I looked at the Microsoft Health app it showed my sleep for the night before. I noticed though that it said “(Detected)”, as seen in the screenshot below:

So what kind of sorcery is this? The next night I thought I would test it out and didn’t enable sleep mode. When I awoke and checked the Health app I was disappointed to see that it didn’t record the sleep.

I was however wrong. It had recorded the sleep, however takes a few hours before it shows up.

The reason being is that the data is uploaded to the Microsoft Health service where it analyses your movement (or lack thereof), heart rate, and whatever else and makes the assessment that you have been asleep.

I gotta say, this is impressive functionality. I know others have it, but compared with everything else the Band is capable of doing this is shaping up to be one smart device & service!