Every morning I check 3 things before I get out of bed. HRV in the Health app. Training Today to see if I’m ready to train. Then Vitals.
Most mornings it takes 10 seconds. Everything blue, move on. But when something shows pink, that’s when it gets interesting.
Here’s what the app actually is and how to read it.
What Vitals is
Vitals is a built-in Apple Watch app introduced in watchOS 11. It tracks 5 health metrics while you sleep and gives you a morning summary compared against your personal baseline.
The key word is baseline. The app compares your numbers to your own history. Your resting heart rate during sleep is different from mine, and Vitals accounts for that. A number that looks low for someone else might be completely normal for you.
What it tracks
On Series 10, Vitals tracks 5 metrics overnight:
- Heart rate — your resting heart rate during sleep
- Respiratory rate — how many breaths per minute
- Wrist skin temperature — variation from your personal baseline
- Blood oxygen — the percentage of oxygen in your blood
- One accuracy note: heart rate at rest is where Apple Watch performs most reliably. Blood oxygen readings from consumer wearables carry wider margins of error than clinical pulse oximeters. Use it to spot sustained shifts from your baseline, not as a precise medical reading.
- Sleep duration — total time asleep – sleep duration is covered in depth in the Apple Watch sleep tracking post.
One caveat on blood oxygen: if you bought an Apple Watch in the United States on or after January 18, 2024 and your model’s part number ends in LW/A, blood oxygen is not available in Vitals. Apple removed it from those models due to a patent dispute. Check your part number in Settings if you’re unsure.
How to read the morning summary
Blue means the metric is within your typical range. Pink means it’s an outlier.
One pink metric on its own is usually noise. Your heart rate runs a bit high after a rough night? Move on. But 2 or more metrics showing pink on the same night is a pattern worth paying attention to. That’s also when Apple Watch sends you a notification.
One thing worth knowing: the baseline takes time to build. You’ll see a count: “12 measurements” or “34 days.” The more data it has, the more accurate your typical ranges become. Give it a few weeks before drawing conclusions.
Reading the 4 time views
The Vitals app in Apple Health has 4 views: D (day), W (week), M (month), and 6M (6 months). You’ll see them as tabs at the top.
Day view shows individual data points scattered across the day. You can see which metrics are blue (typical) and which are pink (outlier). It also shows the icons for each of the 5 metrics at the bottom so you can see which one is off.
Week view shows a bar for each day. A mostly blue week with one pink day tells a different story than a week where pink shows up repeatedly. This is where patterns start to emerge.
Month view gives you 30 days at a glance. You’ll see your typical range clearly, and outlier days stand out immediately as pink bars.
6-month view is the longest window. This is where you start to see seasonal shifts, the impact of lifestyle changes, or sustained periods of stress or recovery. If you’ve been consistent with sleep and training, you’ll see it here.
How I use it every morning
I check it right after waking up, same time as HRV.
Most mornings everything is blue and I close the app in 5 seconds. But when something is pink, I ask one question: what happened yesterday? Hard training session? Poor sleep? Alcohol? There’s usually an obvious explanation.
The combination is what tells the story. Low blood oxygen and elevated heart rate on the same night: that’s worth taking seriously.
A few times Vitals has flagged multiple outliers before I felt sick. Not every time. But often enough that I check it without skipping.
What to actually do with it
Check it every morning. Don’t react to single readings.
If outliers keep showing up over several days with no obvious cause, that’s the signal. Back off training, prioritize sleep, see how the numbers look after a few days.
Pair it with HRV. Vitals tells you which metrics moved overnight. HRV tells you how your nervous system is handling the load. Together they give you a fuller morning picture than either one alone.
Vitals is a trend tool. It tells you when something is outside your normal range so you can pay attention. If outliers keep showing up with no obvious cause, or if you’re seeing patterns that concern you, talk to a doctor. The watch flags. A clinician interprets.
Sources: Apple Watch User Guide — Vitals | Apple Watch blood oxygen availability