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Stess during sleep

I've been using my Garmin Venu 2 Plus for a couple of months and my stress levels while I'm sleeping are stressing me out! My sleep quality is usually poor. I'm wondering how accurate this information truly is. I'm going to talk to my doctor this afternoon and hopefully he'll have some advice. I don't sleep well and take Xanax every night so how can I be so stressed while sleeping? Here's just a couple of exames of the readings. I've not had a night where my chart has not looked like this. Thanks for any help.

  • I found studies that showed that Xanax (Alprazolam) and anxiety disorders lowers your HRV. Lower HRV means higher stress.

    I think that you should stop looking at the stress levels, body battery and sleep tracking since it affects you negatively. You know that you don't sleep well. Talk to your doctor.

  • I don't sleep well and take Xanax every night

    That's the exact reason for it. Xanax is known to decrease the HRV. And since the HRV is what the watch uses to measure the stress (the lower the HRV, the higher the stress), it then detects high stress.

    From the paper Effect of an oral anxiolytic medication and heart rate variability on image quality of 64-slice MDCT coronary angiography - PubMed (nih.gov) 

    Conclusions: The most important finding in our study is that oral premedication to reduce anxiety is also effective in decreasing HRV 

  • Thank you. Interesting article. I'll be talking to my prescribing doctor this afternoon. Just so happen to have an appointment. I tried cutting the amount of Xanax in half, but don't sleep hardly at all. Over the past several years I have tried every OTC and prescription sleeping medication known. Nothing works and I'm the type of person that medications can have the opposite intended affect on me. I've taken prescription sleeping pills and been up all night. So unless the doctor has a new idea, I can sleep like crap or not sleep at all. 

  • Thank you. Seeing the poor sleep and stress does make me worse. Great ideas to talk to my doctor and stop looking at the numbers.

  • Don't know where you live, but if cbd oil is allowed i will highly recommend you to ask your doctor about it . Just make sure it's pure cbd without any thc in it.

  • Nothing against doctors, but if he/she isn't into stress level and HRV as measure by a wearable, he will roll the eyes on you :) 

  • I just started using my Venu 2 Plus. I too got a sleep score last night of 61. But my Fit Bit Charge 2 got a sleep score of 84. And my RESMED BiPaP got a sleep score 79. So I believe the 79 it knows my every breath in and out. 61 is way too low, and it wasn’t stress. And my resting Hr was below 60 most of the night, I was asleep and not moving, having taken magnesium Citrate 250 mg, and 10mg melatonin in Sleep3 Natures Bounty Timed Release. I would hope a lower HR would not be a factor in calculating sleep score. Why? The lower could mean more relaxed and not performing anything exhausting. And Venu 2 Plus says my Stress was almost nonexistent. Talk to Doctor. Maybe ask if you need a Sleep Study Test? Do you ever get Deep sleep? REM sleep? If not that is not good. I still am just Learning how to use my watch. I expect it to be better than Fitbit in the long run! And replace Fitbit too! Have you tried editing your sleep start/end hours to try and see if you actually had more time sleeping that wasn’t included and when you include it your score goes up! Also eliminate too much time if it is like 12 hours or 11 of data but you can see you were very restless. That edit feature can be redeeming! Don’t trust the auto program to always pick the correct start/end times! I have noticed that on my Fitbit for many years. Don’t give up! Be patient and also try to release stress by not watching TV before Bed and no electronic screen games before bed, try within one hour of bedtime no screens. I’m not a coffee or tea drinker but if you are, cut yourself off 2 or 3 hours before bed. No soda pop too. Ask Doctor about non addicting magnesium supplement to relax body hour before bed and maybe melatonin instead of that other thing your taking?

    Wishing Good Luck!Four leaf clover 

  • Well, when it come to sleep, Garmin is about the worst in the class, so don't count on that. Editing the sleep will give you nothing, only more light sleep. Anyway good luck.

    And your suggestion about a sleep study test is the only way to find out how you sleep, neither Garmin or any of the other brands come even close to that.