I know that the update was supposed to improve the reliability of the all day stress reading. However, for me it's done exactly the opposite. Since the update, my stress reading is always MEDIUM to HIGH (51 to 100) even when I'm sleeping! Is anyone else seeing this???
Fair enough. And I do believe you're having problems with the watch, but just as a diagnostic exercise, have you tried taking a few days off exercsie, booze & caffeine and just seeing what happens? Does it still register wonky stuff?
The reason I ask, is that I suspect the "hard reset trick" is simply erasing your "history" from memory and "forcing" it to assume you're starting from a "default" state of "total rest". So in other word's it's not actually fixing the problem you're having, it's just forcing it to "start again in a rested state", which quickly goes "wonky" again once it starts collecting data.
As I said, I'm not trying to say you're doing anything wrong or the watch isn't broken, but just as a diagnostic, it might be useful to see what happens if you just take it really easy for a few days, if you have not already tried that?
Fair enough. And I do believe you're having problems with the watch, but just as a diagnostic exercise, have you tried taking a few days off exercsie, booze & caffeine and just seeing what happens? Does it still register wonky stuff?
The reason I ask, is that I suspect the "hard reset trick" is simply erasing your "history" from memory and "forcing" it to assume you're starting from a "default" state of "total rest". So in other word's it's not actually fixing the problem you're having, it's just forcing it to "start again in a rested state", which quickly goes "wonky" again once it starts collecting data.
As I said, I'm not trying to say you're doing anything wrong or the watch isn't broken, but just as a diagnostic, it might be useful to see what happens if you just take it really easy for a few days, if you have not already tried that?
I have had maybe four or five glasses of wine total over the last two years (no exaggeration). I have one cup of coffee at around 9-10am every day (exactly one cup), I keep a regular sleep schedule (even on weekends), and I meditate daily. And I do a light 2.5-3 mile jog every other day. I don't think that should be causing extreme systemic hardship. <shrug>
I appreciate everyone's input, but many people are missing the point of my original post. There has definitely been a change in the algorithm to calculate all day stress. That change may work for most people, but for a good number of people it does not. The changed algorithm results in many people, like myself, having extremely high stress scores WHILE SLEEPING. In fact, my highest stress scores on any given day are WHILE I'M SLEEPING (usually between 75 - 100). Yes, the numbers may not "mean anything" in terms of what the scale is so I'm not concerned about the scale itself, what is annoying is that whatever the numbers are, they should vary with the amount of stress and it's hard to convince me that my most stressful times are when I'm asleep. In addition, as others have reported, a hard reset does fix the problem for several days, but after 2 or 3 days, it goes back to what it was. Extremely high stress when I sleep, high stress all the other time, even when I'm lying on the sofa reading a pleasant book.
Exactly! Before updating to a beta version I could have sat on a couch for 2 hours watching a movie and it would report I have stress score above 50! How in the world? Now I can at least see my scores being relevant to what I'm doing. It's low while I sleep and when I'm just relaxing, and somewhat high when I'm actually doing stuff. It even picked up hr variations from one day when I was just emotionally excited (got tickets to a unexpected vacation, so I was excited planning it lol!). I didn't do any hard work or anything that day or prior, but definitely had a higher hr levels due to my mood, so the watch though I was at stress... Kinda. On a side note, I noticed that intensity minutes finally started to work again. I did not had any since god knows when, even during a workout, which I knew I should have had from previous sw versions. So I might just stay on this beta since everything seems to work fine *knock on wood*
Wondering when they are finally going to release the 8.99 officially so the stress widget works again, I'm not keep on installing a beta but its still not out and they are now on the 9.02 beta already...
I appreciate everyone's input, but many people are missing the point of my original post. There has definitely been a change in the algorithm to calculate all day stress. That change may work for most people, but for a good number of people it does not. The changed algorithm results in many people, like myself, having extremely high stress scores WHILE SLEEPING. In fact, my highest stress scores on any given day are WHILE I'M SLEEPING (usually between 75 - 100). Yes, the numbers may not "mean anything" in terms of what the scale is so I'm not concerned about the scale itself, what is annoying is that whatever the numbers are, they should vary with the amount of stress and it's hard to convince me that my most stressful times are when I'm asleep. In addition, as others have reported, a hard reset does fix the problem for several days, but after 2 or 3 days, it goes back to what it was. Extremely high stress when I sleep, high stress all the other time, even when I'm lying on the sofa reading a pleasant book.
Yes yes! And remember that -- if the widget is measuring HRV, like it claims to -- why does it tell me I'm highly stressed at the SAME TIME I'm doing HRV biofeedback, which is showing very very high HRV that tracks exactly with my breathing?
For me this actually was never a firmware update issue -- I've had it since I bought the watch in December. I did the hard restart like some suggested, and I had a few days of variable stress reports, but like everyone else has said, it goes back to high stress for me after a few days.
I went to Garmin support and chatted with a representative who was, for the record, extremely rude and patronizing, but eventually offered a replacement unit, since mine is under warranty still. I got the replacement unit this week and it registered variable stress readings for 2 days, but then went back to high stress, like the other one.
So, the widget seems to work for some people, but not others. And it's not clear why. And it doesn't seem to be the exact unit I had, because the replacement one does the same thing.
For what it's worth, I sent a complaint email about this to FirstBeat, and got the following response. It seems to be a known issue that affects some people. Response below:
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Thank you for contacting Firstbeat Support.
Sorry to hear that you are experiencing problems with the Allday Stress and Recovery feature. There has been some reported issues regarding this problem and we thank you for reporting it. The problem might be caused by how the resting heart rate is detected by the feature, but it is still under investigation. The most recent software update includes changes to the All-Day Stress feature that are designed to provide a more accurate stress value, but this hasn't totally erased this issue. It can also take several days of consistent usage (wearing it overnight will improve accuracy) for the new stress levels to adjust.
In some cases, a factory reset on the watch has cured the issue, at least for a while. Although, this does delete all data from the watch, including training sessions, so this might not be the best option. Also, just to make sure, it is good reflect that there isn't anything bigger physiological in the body (e.g. chronic pain) that can be causing the stressful results.
Hopefully this information was helpful. If you have further questions or inquiries please do not hesitate to contact us.
Yes we VA3 users are still stuck with the issue for now. But since the F5 and the VA3 both use the elevate hr sensor, hopefully they can apply whatever they did in this beta to the VA3 as well.
