I’ve been mulling over Garmin watches for some time, as I get on with Garmin head units and wanted to replace an ancient Polar watch.
One of the main draws is the recovery/sleep side of things.
However I recently bought a Forerunner 265 and although it’s shiny, battery life seems good and it means if I forget my head unit all rides can be recorded (great for commuting etc) the sleep aspect seems very lame.
I have bouts of poor sleep (hence the wish to quantify it). The watch doesn’t register if I have sleepless periods (eg >90 minutes awake in the night last night), even if I have ‘woken’ the watch to check the time. It seems to want to register sleep just because I’ve entered my rough sleep times (so says I’m asleep when I’m watching telly on the sofa if it’s after 10pm…)
It also seems to want to only allow one sleep period so if I edit sleep, the second period of nighttime sleep has to be manually added as a nap.
These issues leave it saying I slept well, and am fully recovered when I’ve had 4 or 5 hours of sleep. Body battery/training readiness/recovery are all then overly optimistic…
is this just the best level of sleep monitoring Garmin can achieve? I’m sure the rest of the functions are good but it’s failing at the main thing I want it for…
Thanks
Garmin Venu here. Sleep tracking seems accurate on mind. Short 1-2 minute awake moments in the middle of the night show up on mine
I had a Forerunner 945 that did sleep tracking and it didn't seem accurate to me. I often had to edit the sleep start and end times as it couldn't differentiate between me watching TV slumped on the sofa and actually asleep in bed!
I replaced to FR945 (when it died) with a cheap Amazafit watch which seems to, at least, be able to differentiate between watching TV and being asleep in bed...
@BoardinBob is that a new Venu?
I just wonder if the Forerunner 265 isn’t designed to pick up long waking periods…
I know it’s not the latest sensor etc
Epix Gen 2 here, yes it works just not very well. It frequently has me going to sleep at 2 or 3 in the morning despite hitting the sack at 10pm and I ain't lying awake for 4 or 5 hours. Some of the sleep stages can also be suspect times.Nap recording is just a joke. I treat it as a gimmick nothing else.
Mine works great. Fenix 7 Pro, which has the V5 sensor. Sure, if I wake but stay perfectly still, the watch doesn't register it correctly but I'm not sure what would be involved in improving the accuracy of that.
Get another Polar - sleep tracking works really well for me with a Vantage M2. I give it a preferred sleep window, but it works out when i actually go to bed/sleep. It seems to work to spot interruptions of sleep without thinking i've woken up. Spots differences in kinds of sleep and uses HRV to decide how well recharged I am, alongside duration. It knows when i have eaten red meat, or drunk too much. I can share my HR reading to a second device like a Garmin head unit
Epix 2 here
It’s in for repair at the moment and it’s quite a relief not to have my sleep, stress snd HRV guessed at by my watch. When it’s back I’ll be looking to see what can be turned off
I think the medical opinion is that no one who has insomnia should use a sheet tracker. I’ll take mine off if i think I’m going to have a bad night
Instinct 2X seems fairly accurate to me in terms of time asleep - but the stages i'm not sure about.
Epix 2 seems to get mine pretty much spot on. Captured me getting up for a wee. Alarm was set for 05.10
Not the best night's sleep due to having a few beverages and dealing with the tail end of a cold
Epix Gen 2 and Mrs FD has a 265. Both record our sleep very accurately
I do wonder how useful it is though, along with HRV status . Its accurate on both but it only confirms you what you know ie I had a good sleep, I had a bad sleep, and generally feel well, I generally feel rough
I Think if your training for an event all this data would be useful so that you do t over train, other than that I’m not sure what it really is useful for
got an Instinct 2S, and its pretty accurate
It's not an area I know anything about, but I did notice that Garmin now have a specific sleep monitoring gadget. I assume it'll pair with a smar****ch of your choice.
I'm not sure quite what it offers over and above the usual smar****ch functions but it might be worth a look if that side of things is important.
https://www.garmin.com/en-GB/p/1650098/
other than that I’m not sure what it really is useful for
I do find it okay for looking at trends vs relying purely on memory of how I felt. I guess would also be useful for someone with a coach (human or otherwise) setting a training program.
@PJay - a friend of mine recently started using the sleep band. He has multiple tattoos on his arms and found that the optical sensor in the watch was struggling with good readings as a result. It feeds into his Garmin account and supplements the data recorded by the watch at other times.
FWIW he recently went for a health screening through his employer, took his Garmin sleep data and, as a result, is now being investigated for sleep apnea so some medical professionals are perfectly happy with the associated data as bit of a pointer.
smar****ch of your choice.
That's a super active swear filter!
I think the view is from anyone from a professional capacity is, it’s all a load of crap, much like HRV, body battery & all of the other ‘gimmicks’
I don’t need my watch to tell me if I’ve had a bad nights sleep, and with its inherent inaccuracy when I wake up knackered & apparently I’ve had a run of 90+ sleep scores & a 100 body battery, I know it’s mostly guesswork.
Ive stopped wearing my Fenix 7 as I actually lost it. I was going to buy an 8, but after a week or so, I stopped caring. Then I found it in the garage, and now I only put it on for actual exercise & don’t bother with the rest of it.
it’s quite a relief not to have my sleep, stress snd HRV guessed at by my watch. When it’s back I’ll be looking to see what can be turned off
I think the medical opinion is that no one who has insomnia should use a sheet tracker. I’ll take mine off if i think I’m going to have a bad night
I think I'll give up on it, last night it registered most of my deep sleep last night before I even went to bed.
I'm sure it's me expecting it to do something it's not designed for... I know when I've slept well, I guess I was looking to quantify insomnia which may just exacerbate issues!
It has shown HRV to be low, which probably does confirm stress/misery levels, hence the poor sleep.
I want to get fitter, but am wary of overtraining if I am not recovering
I think the view is from anyone from a professional capacity is, it’s all a load of crap, much like HRV, body battery & all of the other ‘gimmicks’
I don’t need my watch to tell me if I’ve had a bad nights sleep, and with its inherent inaccuracy when I wake up knackered & apparently I’ve had a run of 90+ sleep scores & a 100 body battery, I know it’s mostly guesswork.
Ive stopped wearing my Fenix 7 as I actually lost it. I was going to buy an 8, but after a week or so, I stopped caring. Then I found it in the garage, and now I only put it on for actual exercise & don’t bother with the rest of it.
I like the shiny aspect of it, but my Edge 840 will do everything I need for rides, and I am not running at present.
I'll go back to an analogue watch and think less...
Fenix 7 here. I don't think the sleep monitor is much use. As others have mentioned, it doesn't seem to be able to distinguish the difference between lying still and being asleep so regularly over reports. The nap function has the opposite issue and only picks up my naps approx 50% of the time.
I have worn an Apple watch and Garmin at the same time out of interest and seen around an hour difference in sleep duration. Apple was more accurate.
If sleep tracking is important then perhaps a Whoop (inane Ric Mclaughlin comment not included) may be more suited.
HRV, body battery & all of the other ‘gimmicks’
I don’t need my watch to tell me if I’ve had a bad nights sleep
HRV seems to be pretty accurate way of telling me I'm run down.
I think sleep tracking would be really useful to me if it worked well. I have inconsistent sleep so I always check the data even if I take if with a pinch of salt. Sometimes it feels like I've been awake hours during the night but it may not be the case, and I'll often feel more tired first thing if I've had a good sleep. I would benefit if i could rely upon the sleep data.
I have a first Gen Instinct which limits me to 'Body Battery' or 'Stress' measures (Widgets), I just use Body Battery (when I can be bothered to look).
TBH I just see it as a Number out of 100 to quantify just how Shite/Fresh I feel in the moment and if the last day or so has knackered me as much as I think (or not), it's based on sleep/rest and activity and not much more as far as I can tell...
All it can really indicate is if undertaking something stressful an/or tiring (like a big ride or a day full of lifting and shifting).
In the end it's only a measurement a "Knackeredness number" if you like. What you actually do with that little nugget of information is still up to you, it might just help highlight/recognise a lack of sleep or an excessive amount of stress, sometimes quantifying it is beneficial, other times (quite often IMO) it's just "Junk Data"...
If you already know you didn't sleep well last night, what does a number on your watch really change about that?
I have worn an Apple watch and Garmin at the same time out of interest and seen around an hour difference in sleep duration. Apple was more accurate.
Define "Accurate" how do you know (especially if you were asleep/nodding off at the time?).
Define "Accurate" how do you know (especially if you were asleep/nodding off at the time?).
quantifiable metrics such as dry sheets confirming i made it out of the bed when i needed the toilet, for example
I've reported on previous, similar threads that my HRV will take a sudden, sustained dip for a few days and then recover to near normal just before I experience a cold/flu. I've seen this pattern often enough (and know of others who have seen it) to take it as a warning not to overdo things until it all shakes out.
It works, but it isn't medical and it is easily fooled i.e. if you are lying down and not moving, it doesn't know you aren't asleep.
However, it does seem to be reasonably consistent so if that is your only measure then it can work well.
It sits on your wrist so the measurements aren't thorough as in doing brain wave activity and the like.
I have a Garmin 955.
It's accurate to a point - ie it will register awake times at times I know I was awake. The 'to sleep' time is always spot on and the wake up time isn't far off.
My only annoyance is if I interact with the watch in any way overnight (even as simple as pressing a button to light the display so I can see the time) it assumes I am awake and doesn't make any further attempt at recording sleep. Which then buggers up it's assessment of recovery and other things.
My only annoyance is if I interact with the watch in any way overnight (even as simple as pressing a button to light the display so I can see the time) it assumes I am awake and doesn't make any further attempt at recording sleep.
That's weird as my Fenix 7 will register wake time and then sleep time again. In fact, one of the factors measured overnight is total wake time.
