Apple Watch has a useful hidden feature for tracking a good healthy habit

My new favorite Apple Watch and Apple Health metric is one that has been running quietly in the background for years. More specifically, it’s sort of a hidden feature of the Apple Watch for tracking a good, healthy habit: daylight time.

Apple Health automatically tracks daylight time using your Apple Watch

Daylight time arrived as a metric in the Health app as part of iOS 17 in 2023. Since watchOS 10, Apple Watch automatically tracks daylight time simply by wearing it.

The feature works by using the watch’s ambient light sensor to measure the brightness of your surroundings. There’s no app to install or tracking mode to enable (but you can optionally disable it).

“Time in daylight is an estimate of time spent in the sun,” Apple explains in the Health app. “When unobstructed, Apple Watch can automatically record an estimate of time spent in healthy daylight.”

How to find Daylight Saving Time data in Apple Health

Since the metric can go back as far as June 2023, you may have several years of Time in Daylight data. Daylight time data only appears in your Apple Health app if you’re wearing an Apple Watch.

You can register in just a few steps:

• Open the Health app on iPhone or iPad.
• Tap the magnifying glass icon for search.
• Type “daylight” into the search box.

You can also find daylight time in the Mental Wellbeing or Other Data sections of the health categories on the search page.

Rediscovering this data after several years of tracking minutes and hours of daylight time was interesting.

Reframing how Apple Watch tracks healthy habits

Because spending time in the sun improves physical and mental health, the biggest idea was to quantify healthy habits that aren’t just about exercise.

For example, my longest day during the last week wasn’t spent walking to the beach or riding my bike over the weekend. Sunday outdoor activities come in second place.

However, the highest and third highest in the last week were days when I was able to take out my MacBook Air and write for several hours, saving me more time in daylight.

For me, especially as I try to optimize for a consistently positive mood, quantifying time spent in daylight with Apple Watch is a bit of an unlock that I’m really enjoying right now.

It’s a way to recognize myself for my healthy choices in a way that isn’t just reflected in minutes of exercise.

Further reading on Apple Watch and Apple Health:

You can find the new Apple Watch Series 11 for just $299 on Amazon today.