Your Apple Watch has 4 hidden features that are crucial to your health - try them tonight

The Apple Watch might be loved for tracking workouts, showing notifications, and warning when your heart rate isn't quite right, but there's something else these popular devices do that can be crucial to your overall health. Hidden away so they don't disturb you are plenty of sleep upgrades that monitor numerous metrics when you head to bed. It's a crucial addition that can have a major impact on your overall wellbeing.

The latest Apple Watch models can even watch out for worrying sleep apnoea - a scary condition where your breathing repeatedly stops and then causes a disrupted night's sleep.

If left alone and not treated, sleep apnoea can lead to a number of life-threatening issues, including hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and even heart problems.

This vital function uses the accelerometer on devices such as Series 10 and Watch Ultra 2 to track breathing patterns. Alerts are then released if it detects elevated breathing disturbances over a 30-day period.

Other things the Apple Watch will do as you rest overnight includes tracking overall metrics such as heart rate, breathing and temperature.

A warning will then be issued if the device suddenly spots any dramatic changes, which often occur when you aren't well.

Thanks to in-built sensors, sleep stages can also be monitored, including how much time you spend in REM, Core, and Deep sleep. These stats should help give you a good indication of just how well you are sleeping and why you are waking up feeling tired.

Another useful bonus is setting up sleep goals which pop up to tell you it's time to wind down in a bid to make sure you hit your target.

The Apple Watch will also automatically enable Sleep Focus, which minimises distractions on your wrist. That means you won't get text messages pinging just as your head hits the pillow.

Sadly, the Apple Watch won't yet analyse things such as food intake, alcohol levels or if a room is too light, noisy or warm but its current features can certainly give a good indictation of sleep patterns and possible health problems.

If you weren't aware of these features, then it's worth giving them a try to see if it helps improve your rest. Not getting enough shut-eye can seriously hamper your health.

As the NHS confirms, sleep deprivation can make us feel down or have a lower mood, along with having difficulty concentrating and being more irritable than usual.

"Longer-term sleep problems can affect our relationships and social life, and leave us feeling tired all the time, eating more and not able to do daily tasks," the NHS added.

Apple also has a number of other ways to calm you down including its Sleep Meditation via its Fitness+ app, Sound Therapy playlists in Apple Music and soundscapes on the HomePod Mini which play background ambient sounds when you need to focus, relax or fall asleep.

If you don't feel rested in the morning or can't nod off at night then technology can definitely lend a hand.