Samsung announces Galaxy Watch upgrades for better sleep, fitness, and recovery

Samsung has just announced new health features for the upcoming Galaxy Watch (which should be the Galaxy Watch 8 series, although the company doesn't specifically say it) aimed at further improving your health and daily habits for a healthier lifestyle overall. The new features are aimed at improving sleep, heart health, fitness, and nutrition. 

New features for the upcoming Galaxy Watch 

• Bedtime Guidance: for optimizing your sleep habits
• Vascular Load: measuring stress on your vascular system when you sleep
• Running Coach: strategizing your training
• Antioxidant Index: measuring carotenoids for healthy aging 

With these new features, Samsung aims to help you become healthier by motivating you through instant feedback, providing rewards for successes or indicating warning signs. 



Dr. Pak also says that the new insights should lead to meaningful changes in users' lives and health management. 

Now, let's see exactly how these features work. 

Bedtime Guidance 

Thanks to this feature, your Galaxy Watch will now suggest an optimal bedtime for you. This will be based on your lifestyle and sleep patterns, and your timepiece will also send you reminders to help you stick to a healthier bedtime routine. 

The feature works by analyzing your past three days' sleep patterns and evaluating your need for sleep pressure and your circadian rhythm. The suggested bedtime should maximize your alertness the next day. 

You may find this especially useful if you're trying to optimize your sleep after a period of irregular sleep (I find myself in this situation way too often for my own good). This is also super helpful if you have inconsistent sleep schedules between weekdays and weekends (yours truly is also guilty of that). All these factors will be taken into account by the feature, so the suggested bedtime should offer you an adequate amount of sleep. 

Vascular Load

The Galaxy Watch will measure the amount of stress on your vascular system while you sleep as well. Basically, your vascular system carries blood throughout the body and delivers oxygen, and nutrients, while removing waste.

When you sleep, stress on your vascular system should naturally dip. However, Samsung notes, that excessive fluctuations can impact your cardiovascular health and overall wellbeing. 
The feature will measure your vascular load and provide insights, taking into account sleep, exercise, and stress. 

Running Coach 

Samsung is seeking to support runners with a new feature that should help you avoid getting injuries. Often, people who run can over-pace themselves, or not optimally push themselves. To help with that, Running Coach will offer you optimized-intensity and injury-preventing training suggestions, which makes it ideal for beginners or people who are not running all the time. 

The feature offers real-time guidance and motivation, providing you with a tailored training program based on your fitness level and your goals. 

When you wear your watch, you just need to run for 12 minutes for it to analyze your performance and running level. The smartwatch will then give you a running level from 1 to 10. You will also get a detailed training plan to help you complete a 5K, 10K, half marathon, or full marathon, based on your level. 

When you complete your training session, you’ll also level up and have running challenges.

Antioxidant Index

Last, but not least, we have the Antioxidant Index feature. It is aimed at helping you age healthily. Drinking alcohol, smoking, UV exposure, stress and lack of sleep can accelerate agin of your skin by increasing free radicals in the body. These free radicals accelerate aging. 

Meanwhile, antioxidants are nutrients that are found in many healthy foods. Those neutralize the free radicals and help prevent illnesses and promote healthy aging. 

With this new Antioxidant Index, your Galaxy Watch will measure carotenoids (antioxidants found in green and orange veggies and fruit and stored in your skin). The Watch’s BioActive sensor is used to measure carotenoids in five seconds. Of course, you’ll then have insights that can help you improve your daily habits. For example, if you drink carrot juice, the changes in the carotenoids will show up in the index and act as motivation to make healthier choices. 

Availability 

Samsung has announced these features for an 'upcoming Galaxy Watch', which is most likely the Galaxy Watch 8, expected to be announced alongside the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Z Flip 7 sometime next month. However, Vascular Load and Antioxidant Indext can also work on the Galaxy Watch Ultra (or later), and the Running Coach feature will be available on Galaxy Watch 7 and later.