Disclaimer: Due to regulation, different ScanWatch 2 health features may be available in your region. Learn more.

Overview

Respiratory Scan will measure your heart rate, respiratory rate, oxygen saturation (spO2) levels, and movement throughout the night to provide complete maps of your sleep.

During sleep, it is possible to experience trouble breathing and you may not remember it in the morning. SpO2 level drops can be a sign of these breathing disturbances. When the brain senses that oxygen levels are getting too low, it triggers a safety alarm signal, waking you up to take a breath. After falling back to sleep, this can occur repeatedly during the night, which doesn’t allow the body to recover properly.

ScanWatch 2 embeds sensors to scan your night. It uses its PPG (photoplethysmography) sensor to measure your heart rate and heart rhythm, and your breathing rate and respiratory effort. It also uses an accelerometer to monitor your actigraphy (rest and activity cycles). Consequently, ScanWatch 2 can monitor breathing disturbances episodes during your sleep.

Activating Respiratory Scan

To activate the Respiratory Scan feature, please follow these steps:

1. Open the Withings App.
2. Go to your Devices.
3. Find your ScanWatch 2 and select All Settings.
4. Under 'Health Features,' tap Respiratory Scan.
5. Select the measurement mode of your choice.

When activating the Respiratory Scan, you will be able to choose between three measurement modes:

• Off: No Respiratory Scan will be launched.
• Automatic: Based on the results of the first night, ScanWatch 2 will repeat the recording when necessary. It will notify you the day before and ask if you want to reschedule later. We recommend this frequency to get the best results from this feature. Note that the battery should be above 10% to launch the series of measurements.
• Always on: A Respiratory Scan will be completed every night, and you will get the results every morning. Your battery life might suffer from this mode.

Important note regarding spO2 results: While the Respiratory Scan will indeed measure spO2, please note that this data will not appear in the Withings App as a standalone measurement, such as the one you see when manually measuring your spO2 levels. Instead, this spO2 data will be nestled within the Respiratory Scan result under 'Breathing disturbances.' 

Understanding the Automatic measurement mode

Based on your first Respiratory Scan result, the Automatic feature will implement a batch of scans. The batch consists in one to three Respiratory Scans in a row. The first scan of the batch is by default scheduled for the next sleep. You can postpone it if you want to.

Each scan of the batch will occur on a specific time according to the results of the previous scan:

• Low breathing disturbance: the batch ends
• Medium breathing disturbance: the batch continues for the next night of sleep
• High breathing disturbance: the batch continues for the next two nights of sleep

The next batch will occur according to the most severe scan result of the previous batch:

• Low breathing disturbance: the next batch will occur in three months
• Medium breathing disturbance: the next batch will occur in three months
• High breathing disturbance: the next batch will occur in one month

Note: if the Respiratory Scan cannot be performed or completed, another one will be automatically scheduled for the next week. You will be reminded of the process with a notification.

Understanding my results

ScanWatch 2 provides three categories to grade the severity of breathing disturbances:

• Low: Low breathing disturbances level on the last monitored night. 
• Moderate: A moderate amount of breathing disturbances was detected on the last monitored night. 
• High: A high volume of breathing disturbances was detected on the last monitored night.

Note: Your overnight spO2 measurement data will appear within these results. 

Sharing my results

You can find each night scan record and history in the Withings App and you can easily share it with someone as a PDF. This can help assist you with maintaining your overall wellness.

Notes: 

• The Respiratory Scan functionality will impact the battery life of the watch.
• When the Respiratory Scan is activated, a moon icon appears under the time on the screen of the watch.