Just an observation and probably not a revelation, but...
Had a summer of fairly consistent drinking every day and body battery was always 20-30'ish % every morning.
Had a week off the booze - intention is to go until Christmas. My body battery has been steadily rising all week and hit 95% this morning.
Just shows how much booze really does hammer you
I really notice it in my sleep score & the perceived quality of sleep if I have a period of time without booze, the longer the better as you've pointed out but it's better even after just one night.
Just shows how much booze really does hammer you
what’s even more of a revelation is that it took a watch to work this out for you 🤣
Booze is nasty stuff in reality, especially as you get older
Presumably it is based on some heart rate calculation. I have borderline high blood pressure and using the blood pressure monitor daily shows rapid changes in both blood pressure and heart rate when I kick the booze.
I really wish I could manage drinking so it doesn't become a daily habit. I feel much better when I quit but it always creeps back up no matter how much I tell myself it will be social only, weekends only this time etc.
The Dan Lloyd GCN videos on alcohol and it's affects on you were really interesting, worth a watch.
I gave up drinking for about 3 months a couple of years back, only because I had to before some liver function tests (not related to alcohol), and after about 10 days it was amazing how much better I was sleeping. Rarely waking in the night, just continuous sleep right up until the alarm went off, which I really couldn't remember ever having before. I kept the drinking to a minimum for a bit after the tests before slipping back to the old habits.
I've not been drinking much lately, not for any reason than lack of opportunity and just don't feel like it, and now getting back to that continuous sleep again it makes me think about completely giving it up but I do really enjoy a post ride pint with my mates.
It’s poison. Best avoided or consumed in very small amounts infrequently
Had my weekly pint last night and definitely disturbed sleep. A nice pint and a catch up with a mate probably did more for my mental health than any damage to my sleep did harm.
have borderline high blood pressure and using the blood pressure monitor daily shows rapid changes in both blood pressure and heart rate
I am similar and on low dose blood pressure medication. If I have any more than half a bottle of wine or equivalent it puts my numbers up by around 10 on each metric the next day. Poison indeed…
FYI or seems to be the HRV status that is picked up by the watch.
HRV is heart rate variability. A less stressed heart has more variation in the time between beats
You should replace the drinking with riding every day for a few weeks to get your body battery figures back down.😂
I only ever get over 50% if Iv'e either not ridden or had a very easy day the day before.
Weekend drinking really messes with my HRV figures and sleep scores too.
Not so clear cut for me. Overnight hrv seems to dip...especially if I really got stuck in, but not enough to mess up balanced hrv. But battery is rarely below 60 and looks like that would be alcohol or exercise (or both). Bpm goes up maybe 2-3.
what’s even more of a revelation is that it took a watch to work this out for you 🤣
Erm, it didn't really - I've more than enough experience of drinking/abstaining to know for my self 🤣
Was just commenting on what I'd observed from Garmin
Yeah, 47 days on the booze without a break this summer. Struggling to leave it alone.
I really wish I could manage drinking so it doesn't become a daily habit. I feel much better when I quit but it always creeps back up no matter how much I tell myself it will be social only, weekends only this time etc.
Yep, I've resigned myself to the fact that I'm either drinking, or I'm not. Can't do the 'social couple of beers'
Do you have to wear the watch at night for sleep data for body battery to be meaningful?
Mine is saying low energy every day and on a ride day it's near depleted.
This is after cutting the booze right down. Zero to one drink a week instead of daily. Though it was same before that.
No issues sleeping though, but the watch isn't tracking that as I take it off. It's uncomfortable wearing it to sleep and marks my wrist, making it itchy if worn 24/7
Ps the booze stuff has always been a psychological connection of booze with food, but I've finally found 0% alternatives that my brain accepts.
Do you have to wear the watch at night for sleep data for body battery to be meaningful?
Yes, it will be doing a long term trend analysis of your heart rate Vs current state. Incomplete data and it will be (even more) meaningless.
If this is the way of measuring that you have and you wear the watch 24/7 daily, then you will create a consistent view. That makes it less meaningless as it is measuring the same thing every day and that starts to build a picture that can help you make some assumptions with a bit more accuracy.
In short, yes, the watch needs to be worn overnight and then sync it with your Garmin Connect app to see your sleep score and body battery.
what’s even more of a revelation is that it took a watch to work this out for you
It's easy to become blind to it when you're drinking. Years ago I was drinking far more than I should and I spent a lot of time genuinely wondering why I didn't feel so great, contemplating going to the doctor's. Then you stop drinking and it's like "Ohhhh.. !"
Garmin's body battery is mostly made up of heart rate and HRV (the latter being a good indicator of the stress your body is under).
Alcohol has a huge impact on quality of sleep. Measuring it puts in perspective just how much. 1 drink will significantly lower my HRV for several hours and potentially halve my morning body battery.
It's uncomfortable wearing it to sleep and marks my wrist, making it itchy if worn 24/7
I swap wrists when i go to bed. It gives my wrist a break, so it's not on the same skin all the time.
Mine is a relatively svelte VivoActive 5 though, not one of those gigantic ones that some have - I'm sure they would annoy me too much to sleep in.
Two things…firstly my mate wears his 24/7… he now has a dent in his wrist from it.
and secondly… can someone check if changing from booze to fizzy pop still has a detrimental effect on things.
It looks like some of you would benefit from The STW Sobriety Thread. Join in and you could become a boring campaigner against alcohol consumption!
Fifty years of being a boring excessive consumer of alcohol stopped overnight. Eighteen months in now and not a drop!!
Money saved, mental and physical health improved.
Fizzy juice is my weakness...far far too much daily. Pretty sure it also contributes to my fast heart rate when exercising (it has always been high) and it has now been far too many years of fizzy juice for me.to be sure.
However, it is full of bad stuff and it must be having some sort of negative impact.
I don't drink much, but bit still have terrible sleep scores most of the time (80 is a really good day for me), I seem to lack deep sleep much of the time, that doesn't seem to matter if I've not drink for a week,not of I've had a beer or two a day.
My wife tracks with Garmin too, she never gets us much battery increase as I do despite her sleep scores being consistently higher than mine. Info far more activity wise than she does though which I think makes a big difference . I'd love to know more about the science of it all.
As a side issue, those that wear their Garmin for 24hrs to get these metrics - don't you get 'burns' on the wrist under the HRM? I've stopped wearing mine now as the discoloured skin was getting more frequent.
I don't drink much, but bit still have terrible sleep scores most of the time (80 is a really good day for me), I seem to lack deep sleep much of the time, that doesn't seem to matter if I've not drink for a week,not of I've had a beer or two a day.
Same for me. I looked it up recently to find that the detection of sleep types isn't all that great.
don't you get 'burns' on the wrist under the HRM?
The LEDs aren't enough to burn the skin so it's usually dermatitis caused either by a reaction to the device or by the buildup of moisture and trapped particles. Swapping wrists every couple of days (or overnight) should prevent it. It's one area where the screenless wearable should have an advantage as in theory you can wear them anywhere they have good skin contact so you can move them around but AFAIK it's only Whoop that actively supports non-wrist options at the moment.
“Yep, I've resigned myself to the fact that I'm either drinking, or I'm not. Can't do the 'social couple of beers'”
This, Mr Artist, is because of the chemical changes just one drink of alcohol causes in your brain!
Abstain and enjoy the Stanton to it’s maximum!
I tend to get better sleeps if I've eaten better that day i.e. not eaten excessive amounts and being more balanced.
AFAIK it's only Whoop that actively supports non-wrist options at the moment.
There is now a Garmin armband sleep tracker, bit it's new still and £150, which seems steep for a cut down device (given I paid £180 for my forerunner).
Alcohol is the one thing that really hits my HRV on the Garmin + which is part of the body battery calc. It gets buried a bit in HRV as the headline figure is a 7 day rolling average but is very marked if I look at the underlying daily figures.
I need a few days of hard exercise to match the impact of one big night on the beer. Then again I am a massive lightweight these days with the booze
Should we start calling alcohol 'Garmin Body Battery Acid'? 😉
I don't drink much, but bit still have terrible sleep scores most of the time (80 is a really good day for me
Same - I don't really drink at all and average about 75 for sleep scores. Then again i do have long COVID, which doesn't help
I also have shit sleep scores even when I've not had a drink.
50 to 60 is good for me on any day.
Don't think my Garmin takes into account the metal in my shoulder waking me up when I roll on to it.
Even taking that in to account if I do manage a nights sleep without being woken up with my injury it always tells me I've not had enough REM.
Really how am I supposed to fix that?
Yeah I never get above 'good' sleep score even if I'm feeling good, and not had a drink.
If I have a couple of beers then often it won't appreciably dent my score but much more than that definitely does.
I think the sleep score /body battery does tend to match how I'm feeling, but not always.
I do find them quite helpful metrics - they do encourage me to try to get better sleep/drink less. Doesn't always work though!
You can tap on the sleep score factors on connect for tips on how to improve your sleep. For REM sleep it seems it’s related to length of sleep as apparently “REM stages grow increasingly longer and deeper throughout the night, so adequate sleep duration provides the greatest boost to REM totals”
Alcohol is the one thing that really hits my HRV on the Garmin
For me it is either alcohol through to closing time or aerobic verging on anaerobic exercise (mostly spin since mountain biking I run out of talent way before i hit the high levels) mid/late evening.
A beer after a spin class sends it home crying.
It looks like some of you would benefit from The STW Sobriety Thread. Join in and you could become a boring campaigner against alcohol consumption!
But then how would I do that thing where, after the kids have gone to bed on a Friday or Saturday, I sit in front of the computer sinking tin after tin, gradually increasing my level of buzz whilst simultaneously cruising the dark corners of the internet looking for new music and then, every so often, I come across an absolute banger of a tune just as my euphoric buzz reaches its zenith and I achieve possibly the only moment of true happiness I might have all week.
And then I add the tune to my spotify playlist and every time it comes up I get an echo of that euphoric feeling and it's enough to get me through the day.
But I'm sure not drinking is fun too.
Bottle of red last night, now wide awake…. I took my Apple Watch off when I went to bed as I know the numbers will be depressing..
Yeah I never get above 'good' sleep score even if I'm feeling good, and not had a drink.
I'm consistently in the mid-high 80's with my sleep score after just over a week off the booze. That includes getting up in the middle of the night for a pee
Body battery was 97% yesterday morning. Down to 79% today after after another good night's sleep - due to a leg powered bike ride yesterday no doubt
My Body Battery was down to 5 last night. Probably due to the 82km run 😂
My sleep score is generally in the "Good" range. I do notice a drop after alcohol, sustained exercise or stress.
Currently having a boozy holiday in Spain. I've decided not to bother checking my morning HR or HRV.
Body battery doesn't go below 5...which is a bit odd.
I've started doing the Garmin Breathwork exercises...first one reduced my stress levels by 20 and last night before bed I reduced my stress levels by 45...unsure what it did but I did fall asleep quickly and felt like I had a decent sleep - 87 despite a 2am pee stop, so I'm fine with that.
Body battery was up at 81...hoping that improves as well.
My Body Battery was down to 5 last night. Probably due to the 82km run 😂
bloody hell! fair play!
booze is a massive factor in my ability to recover reflected by the body battery. oddly despite her massive propensity for snoring and therefore waking me up, i sleep better according to the measuring machine when the boss is with me.
So close 🤣
That's what the gadget says, how did you actually feel?
That's what the gadget says, how did you actually feel?
I feel fine
But I don't take it too seriously
I've been following this thread with some interest, because it does a pretty good job of explaining my own experiences. Friday/ Saturday are generally staying home with a couple of bottles of wine and a takeaway, recovering from a long weekend. Sundays I'm absolutely knackered (obvs), and when it comes time to go running on Monday I still feel like an empty husk of a body. Body battery would explain it.
My question: as someone who can't wear a watch all night, and who wears other watches during the day, have any of you tried those smart rings as a way to get the same body battery/ sleep score etc data? Randomly I came across a comparison of smart rings (things like Oura, and the Samsung Galaxy Ring) yesterday https://www.tomsguide.com/wellness/fitness-trackers/best-oura-ring-alternatives and I'm intrigued
Not the answer to your question but if you are already wearing a Garmin watch during the day and for activities then the new Garmin Sleep Band would fit into that "ecosystem".
So close 🤣
Impressive - i've never had over 83! Must be the sleep coach. I haven't got that option it seems. But what amazing advice. I wonder if it ever says "You sleep too much."
But my average stress level is 25 so maybe it doesn't matter...
I've started doing the Garmin Breathwork exercises...first one reduced my stress levels by 20 and last night before bed I reduced my stress levels by 45...
I'd never looked into this until I read this post so gave it a go.
Did the "Tranqility" one just before bed for a couple of night running and my stress score actually went up. 🤣
Not done it since and my stress score has returned to it's normal level.
Body Battery had a good range test yesterday going from 94 down to 8.
While we’re on Garmin body battery and stress levels, does anybody else get higher reported stress when they are asleep than when they are awake? If I’m sitting on the couch in the evening my reported stress levels are quite low. In fact nothing is more certain to drop my reported stress into the “blue zone” than reading a book in the evening. So I can have a couple of hours of low stress scores just before going to bed. But when I wake up in the morning and look at the morning report it often shown solid orange (with peaks of high Orange scores) for most of the night.
Im a tightwad but some of this data sounds quite useful. Whats the best budget way of getting all this body battery type data?
@roverpig I occasionally see nights where my Garmin shows a high Stress count not long after going to bed but then it settles down through the night. I don't know what causes this reading but thought it might be related to a change of body position, possibly even affecting the digestive system.
Im a tightwad but some of this data sounds quite useful. Whats the best budget way of getting all this body battery type data?
I've only done some really basic Googling, but a Forerunner 55 watch or Vivosmart wearable thing. Looks like they have body battery stuff and can be picked up for maybe £120?
Roverpig, yes mine does that too. I can be lying in bed reading, nice blue low stress. Then i turn out the light, and you can see the moment i fall asleep as my stress jumps into the orange!
Usually it settles down after 2-3 hours to borderline blue-orange for the night.
Then I'll get up, sit at my computer to work, and it drops back down to the lower blues again.
I dream of having a sleep graph like the one posted above!
Not flexing but...
Dickswinging about who sleeps the best. 😂
You don't get more STW than that.
Thanks @scotroutes and @doris5000 Nice to know I’m not alone 😀 You are right that it is not really all night (or even every night) and stress levels do seem to drop during the night. Still a bit strange though.
I did think it might be something about the bed vs the couch, but I can get in the blue zone reading in bed too and it always drops after I wake up even if I stay in bed. Could be something to do with position and digestion I guess. But I can doze (laying) on the couch and have the recorded stress be very low then go to bed and next morning it looks as though it is medium/high pretty much from when I went to sleep for a few hours. All very strange but I suspect it’s always been the case and I only notice it now I’ve got a watch that records such things.
All very strange but I suspect it’s always been the case and I only notice it now I’ve got a watch that records such things.
Yeah it's hard to know! I only got a Garmin after i got Long COVID to try and help with pacing and whatnot. So I don't know what is caused by the illness and what has always been like that...
Now wearing the watch overnight and recently I've largely cut out booze with just one night with a drink per week, but I don't see much change on the no booze days.
I am getting stress recorded for the first 4 hours of sleep though, then changes to relaxed. To be fair it happens more after days I've been riding.
Interesting I was staying at my parents last week, and it was charging up to 100 each night without stress! At home I'm getting between 50 and up to 80 if lucky. Yet I get what I feel is a good night's sleep, bed isn't uncomfortable. But then I spent a week not riding and relaxed during the day. Less so at home.
Also, this morning GC says 53 charged but the watch morning report said 80 🤷♂️
Dickswinging about who sleeps the best.
You don't get more STW than that.
Anxiety about sleep scores - keeping people awake at night since 2025.
Roverpig, yes mine does that too. I can be lying in bed reading, nice blue low stress. Then i turn out the light, and you can see the moment i fall asleep as my stress jumps into the orange!
Are you scared of the dark?
That's right, alcohol disrupts sleep and recovery. So even a short break can significantly boost your energy and overall performance.