Sleep tracking is hilarious inaccurate

Former Member over 5 years ago

Everything seems to work decent on my Garmin Fenix 6, but the sleep tracking is inaccurate every night. I have the watch for 3 days and it shows 10, 12 or even 16 hours of sleep per night. Is it a firmware related problem? I have the last version installed. Should I make some changes on its settings? How can I fix that?

Top Replies

C.sco over 4 years ago in reply to D-Vax +4

D-Vax said:
if sleep tracking is inaccurate then body battery will be too

That's not true. Body Battery does not use sleep tracking metrics whatsoever. As proof of this, your sleep metrics are not calculated…
C.sco over 5 years ago +3

Hi Al, I loved your work in Scarface.

There isn't much you can change in the way of settings, although I would double check that your sleep hours are set to a timeframe that roughly matches your sleeping…
iLikePotatoes over 5 years ago +3

Sleep is calculated somewhere on the servers after sync with Garmin Connect. You cannot really blame watch for this one. Watch provides good relatable data, but the servers are doing (very) poor job of…

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0 Dr Phil over 4 years ago in reply to Scorp1981

Scorp1981

Scorp1981 said:
may I ask how good your sleep is (subjectively)?

I guess the answer is 'it depends'. I did feel that I had a better sleep last night but that might simply be down to being back in my own bed after a few days away. While away my sleep was different with a lot more light sleep recorded and I did not fel that refreshed in the morning.

To be honest I take the sleep levels with a pinch of salt. The watch gives me start and finish times that broadly agree with the times I lay down to sleep and moved to get out of bed in the morning. In between time I have no idea how deeply I've slept unless I'm consciously awake.

Since none of us know how we've moved through the sleep stages during the night I would suggest the only thing we can really comment on is how close the start sleep and awake times are to reality. I've rarely had fault with mine even when lazing in the Lazy Boy watching Netflix for a few hours before bed then reading in bed before turning off the ligh.

0 Dani Y over 4 years ago in reply to Dr Phil

Right, but when you laze around in your Lazy Boy chair and read in bed, does it count those times are sleep times?

0 Dr Phil over 4 years ago in reply to Dani Y

No it does not.

That screenshot I posted a couple of posts back is an example of watching Netflix and reading before turning the light out. Went to bed around 2110 then read for a while before turning the light out. Sleep/DND times are 2130 to 0600.

0 Scorp1981 over 4 years ago in reply to Dr Phil

I also do not put much weight in the sleep stages. For me, it's more indicating how much I moved during sleep, as I noticed a correlation between lesser movement and better "feel" next morning. Also, HR and Stress also can be indicators for me (though even if I do occasionally have a steady HR and low stress, it doesn't automaticaly mean that I move less during sleep).

0 4912192 over 3 years ago

My watch tells me I have poor sleep every single night. I am going to stop wearing it at night because it is not accurate. If you get up to go to the bathroom, it doesn’t take into consideration the sleep you had before getting up. It is irritating. And then everything else is off, recovery time and body battery…. Wouldn’t care so much, but I paid a hefty price for this watch, and I am disappointed.

0 5135968 over 3 years ago

The newer sleep tracking has got worse for me.

If I get up around 5AM, have a pee, make a cup of tea and feed the cat, if I navigate to the Sleep page it still shows me as Sleeping and I need to activly cancel it.

0 gspinoza over 3 years ago in reply to 5135968

This has always happened, with all pasts firmwares, but it's not a bug.

The system doesn't know if you are going to go back to bed, so it remains in sleep mode. It stops only when you reach your normal wake-up time, which you inserted into the system, or when you wake up if your are still sleeping past that time.

After that, it stops and in your system that period when you were awake is marked as "awake".

0 5135968 over 3 years ago in reply to gspinoza

I do need to stop it though as if I take my cup of tea to bed, and read for an hour, that hour will count as sleep even though I am wide awake.

0 Danny_D over 3 years ago in reply to 5135968

Yeah just check back later the day (when your set sleep time is over) and it will show that the sleep time pretty much matches up. It's a post hoc analysis, so it gathers data long enough to make sure you really are awake then gives the wake-up time.

0 iJustRide over 3 years ago in reply to 4912192

So that's why my sleep tracking is so bad every single night? Because I get up to go use the bathroom? Wow!! I paid a lot for this watch to replace a Fitbit Ionic. The Fitbit had much better sleep tracking. Garmin wins in all the other areas. Looking at POOR sleep every morning makes me start to get groggy and sad! Can this be fixed?