One of the headlining features of watchOS 26 is Sleep Score, which provides a nightly score and classification of your sleep on Apple Watch.
With today’s release of the first betas of watchOS 26.2 and iOS 26.2, Apple has a few changes in store for Sleep Score.
As a refresher, Apple Watch’s Sleep Score feature gives you a “measurement of how restorative your recent sleep was likely to be for your mind and body.” The score is broken down into three categories, with a total of 100 points possible:
- Duration: Maximum of 50 points
- Bedtime: Maximum of 30 points
- Interruptions: Maximum of 20 points
The scores from each of those categories are combined to give you an overall Sleep Score paired with a classification level:
- Very Low: 0-29 points
- Low: 30-49 points
- OK: 50-69 points
- High: 70-89 points
- Excellent: 90-100 points
But those scores are about to change…
What changes with watchOS 26.2
With today’s release of the first watchOS 26.2 beta, Apple is making several changes to the classification levels for Sleep Score. It’s also renaming the highest classification level from “Excellent” to “Very High.”
Here are the new levels of Sleep Score starting with watchOS 26.2:
- Very Low: 0-40 points
- Low: 41-60 points
- OK: 61-80 points
- High: 81-95 points
- Very High: 96-100 points
As you can see, Apple has increased the criteria for each tier. For example, no longer will a sleep score of 70/100 get you into the “High” category. That threshold has been raised to 81/100.
Apple says that it feels “Very High” is a more objective term than “Excellent,” and should help users avoid confusion when their Sleep Score doesn’t match how they feel on a particular day. That’s not the goal of Sleep Score. Instead, it’s an objective piece of data meant to compare a user’s sleep with the latest guidance from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, the National Sleep Foundation, and the World Sleep Society.
As such, there’s no change to how your Apple Watch captures and determines your Sleep Score based on that guidance.
The changes are also being made based on data Apple has gathered through the Apple Heart and Movement Study. Essentially, as Apple has gathered more data and feedback, it’s been able to further refine the Sleep Score feature.
9to5Mac’s Take
I’ve seen a number of posts on Reddit and other social media platforms criticizing the Apple Watch’s Sleep Score feature for being a bit too generous in how it assigns each category. These changes in watchOS 26.2 are clearly meant to address those concerns, and hopefully deliver a more measured
The rebranding of the “Excellent” label makes sense to me. I think users assumed “Excellent” meant they would feel excellent on that particular day. “Very High” makes more sense and is better aligned with the other classification names. Sleep is one component that contributes to how you’ll feel on a given day, but it’s not the only component.
Sleep Score is one of my favorite watchOS 26 features, so I’m glad to see Apple listening to and responding to feedback. My next request would be for Sleep Score to provide a little more context as to why I’ve never been able to get above 10/20 with my “Interruptions” score.
The Sleep Score feature is available on all Apple Watch models that support watchOS 26. In fact, you technically don’t even need an Apple Watch to get a Sleep Score. Have you tried the feature yet? If so, what do you think? Let us know down in the comments.
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