Garmin watch sleep monitor

[Lizzisforliving]

Hi

I’ve recently started wearing my Vivoactive 3 all the time, and I love being able to check the time with barely a muscle moved. Anyway it’s been collecting my sleep data and I almost never drop into deep sleep - just a few minutes per week, and only on one or two nights.

My question is whether this is accurate and whether it matters if we don’t have ‘deep sleep’?

Thanks

[backintime Graduate10]

Google has this to say

reddit.com/r/Garmin/comment...

if you aren't feeling exhausted all the time, I suspect you are getting enough deep sleep, but I am not a sleep expert (I did have insomnia for a while though)

[Ripcurlrana71 Graduate10]

My Fenix 5S collects sleep data whilst it’s charging the other side of the room! 🤷🏻‍♀️😉

[Hidden in reply to Ripcurlrana71]

😂😂😂

[abitwobbly Graduate10]

When I was getting odd heartbeat results, I was told that my Garmin would learn as I gave it more data and it does seem to have settled down to something that I feel is realistic. I've only worn it a few times whilst sleeping and it seemed to be the opposite of yours, telling me I'd slept more than I knew I had 🙈

[GoGo_JoJo Graduate10]

Unless you're feeling really knackered or have never really felt that you get "restful" sleep it's unlikely to be correct.

Deep sleep is restorative sleep and very necessary. I can tell when I wake if I've had less than an hour in a night without checking the app. 1.5hrs is ideal for me. Under 60 mins and I feel dead.

See if it settles down. If you do feel that you've never really gotten good sleep it may have highlighted a sleep issue...

[Buddy34 Graduate10]

I was looking at information about the garmin watch when I got mine. It says for more accurate readings you should wear it all the time . So if you've just started doing this give it a week or so and see if your readings change.

[Lizzisforliving Graduate10]

Thank you all. I hadn’t even considered how I thought I’d been sleeping, but in fact although I had a couple of nights terrible insomnia I have mostly been sleeping okay and feeling fine the next day.

All bets are off now, because I’m now on antibiotics for cellulitis and feel rubbish, but I’ll wait a few weeks and hope it looks less alarming.

It’s great to have so much expertise at the tap of a keyboard.

[sTrongFuse Graduate10]

Hi. I have the same watch and it is entirely not accurate. It used to register me as being asleep from when I crashed on the couch at the end of the day and claim that I slept through to when I got up the next morning. This would be despite a couple of trips to the loo, getting up to brush my teeth, going upstairs to go to bed and reading for up to an hour once I was in it. The fact that the sunlight streaming in through my bedroom window tends to mean I'm awake (if not especially alert) for about an hour before I get up also seemed to pass it by.

The sleep monitor and the VO2Max calculator are probably the watch's only two weaknesses; and since I already know I'm a terrible sleeper, and I hadn't even heard of VO2Max until I got the thing, I don't let either keep me awake at night.

Oh... Wait...

[Lizzisforliving Graduate10 in reply to sTrongFuse]

Thanks - I’ll stop looking at this data, then. I did wonder about VO2 Max because I’ve only ever had one reading, it never changes.

I like the basic functions of my Vivoactive 3, though.

Happy running! Xxx

[sTrongFuse Graduate10 in reply to Lizzisforliving]

I really like it for everything else. The fact that it looks like an actual watch more than a fitbit was a big plus in its favour.

Heart rate zones when running can also be a bit hit or miss, as it sometimes locks on to footfall rather than pulse, but again, I tend to always just go by how I'm feeling rather than what it's telling me.

It is great for letting me know how far and how long I've run, I like being able to set it to tell me when I'm going faster than I should be, I love being able to control the music on my phone from it without having to fish my phone from my pocket. It gives me all the stats I actually need, so the ones that it falls down on, I can happily live without.

[Lizzisforliving Graduate10 in reply to sTrongFuse]

Me too, I love mine. Just exploring new functions, but if they don’t add anything that’s fine. Xxx