Did you know that your Apple Watch can track the amount of time you spend during the day? In fact, Apple Watch models use a built-in light sensor to automatically detect when you’re outside, record the total time you spend during the day, and document it as a health metric.
Time during the day is important for a variety of health reasons, from vision and eye health, mood, sleep, and the critical hormone vitamin D, which the NIH says is linked to bone health, neurological health, and immune system health—very important things!
So, do you want to see how much time you spend during the day and add it to your health metrics to review on Apple Watch? We’ll show you how.
How to Check Time of Day with Apple Watch & iPhone
Here’s how to access and see how much time you spend during the day using your Apple Watch:
- Open the “Health” app on your iPhone connected to the Apple Watch
- Using the search function, type “daylight.”
- Tap “Time of Day” to view your daytime data with Apple Watch
- Optionally, scroll down to “Time of Day” and tap “Pin to Summary” to add a time of day measurement to your general health summary statistics.
Apples offer daytime health benefits, including improved eyesight and eye health, increased vitamin D levels, improved mood and sleep, and more.
As someone who spends most of my time in cloudy and rainy environments (San Francisco and Seattle), a metric like this is important to me because many people in these climates and areas are vitamin D deficient, and I’m in that camp. Additionally, as a technical worker who spends all working hours at a screen or desk, there is little chance of being outside during work hours.
Here’s what Apple’s blurb about “Time in Daylight” says about the feature and why it’s important:
“Daylight is a measure of time spent in sunlight. For children, spending 80-120 minutes outside each day can help reduce the risk of nearsightedness or farsightedness. For adults, spending about 20 minutes outside every day has many physical and mental benefits.
Time outdoors allows your eyes to focus on objects in the distance, which reduces the eye strain associated with working with close-ups like a screen or sketchbook. Sunlight helps your body produce vitamin D, which your body needs to absorb calcium, protect your bones, teeth and muscles, and support your immune system.
When unblocked, Apple Watch will automatically record the estimated time of day in Health.
That last part is important because if you have long sleeves covering the Apple Watch, it won’t detect if you’re outside, so you can adjust clothing or reveal the Apple Watch as needed.
My personal data has been pretty good this past week because I’ve spent more time outside with friends, family and walking recently, but in some other months, especially these earlier winter, fall and early spring months, the time in the day is almost non-existent. No one enjoys getting soaked in the rain at 45 degrees, as it’s a daily occurrence for 10 months in Seattle, but after seeing the reading drop so low during that time, it makes me realize that I should be spending more time regardless of the weather.
Here are some things I personally plan to do to improve my time in daytime readings:
- Spend more time working outside on nice weather days, and if it’s not raining, take the laptop outside for a bit!
- Take regular eye breaks outside, and focus on something far away, then back to my screen
- Try walking outside, rain or shine
- Exercise outside often
- Engage in more outdoor activities
As for taking my MacBook Air outside and working in direct sunlight, I find it heats up very quickly. Keep in mind that the latest-gen MacBook Air models don’t have a cooling fan, so it doesn’t have a way to quickly cool or deny heat from direct sunlight. This is a bit of a challenge because the MacBook Air heats up very quickly in direct sunlight, even on a mild 70-degree day, and the M chip quickly grinds itself down when it dramatically disconnects itself to prevent overheating. Fortunately, many of the tips I gave a while ago about keeping a MacBook cool in hot weather still apply today, perhaps even more so with a fan-less MacBook Air (or MacBook Neo) that tries to protect the Mac from direct sunlight. If you have a fan-cooled MacBook Pro, you may find some of these tips even more useful, but not necessarily, because that internal cooling fan makes a huge difference.
I’ve been a daily Apple Watch user since the device’s launch, ditched it for a while, and picked one up again over the years now, mostly to track workouts and health metrics, and I didn’t know it still existed, so don’t fret if you haven’t heard of the ability to track time during the day. It was casually referred to as a health metric until I read an article on 9to5mac that I discovered its functionality, so a big shout out to them for raising awareness of this feature.
Did you know that the Apple Watch can track daylight and time of day? Want to keep track of the time on your Apple Watch with a daylight measurement? Let us know your thoughts and opinions in the comments!
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