Background: I'm a 60-year-old endurance athlete and long-term Garmin user (currently Enduro 3). In September 2025, I underwent ascending aortic surgery and have been closely monitoring my recovery using Garmin's health metrics.
What Happened: On January 7, 2026, my Garmin recorded the following overnight data:
- Skin temperature: +1.8°F above baseline (highest deviation in the prior 4 weeks)
- Sleep score: 40 (lowest in the same period)
- Body Battery: Failed to recover above 60s (had been consistently hitting 95-100)
On January 8, 2026, I went to the ER and was diagnosed with acute pericarditis—inflammation of the pericardium, confirmed clinically and now being treated with colchicine.
The Insight: Looking back at my Garmin data, the pattern is clear: my body was mounting an inflammatory response the night before I became symptomatic enough to seek care. The +1.8°F skin temperature spike, combined with the crashed sleep score and suppressed Body Battery, were early physiological signals of the inflammation.
Research supports this—studies have shown that wearable skin temperature tracking can detect illness-associated elevations that correlate with fever and inflammatory conditions (Nature Scientific Reports, 2022; JMIR mHealth, 2021).
The Problem: I only discovered this correlation after the event, by manually reviewing my sleep data in Garmin Connect. There is currently no way to:
- Set a personal threshold for skin temperature alerts
- Receive a notification when overnight skin temp exceeds that threshold
- Combine skin temp with sleep score or Body Battery for a "health warning" signal
Feature Request: Please consider adding user-configurable skin temperature alerts to Garmin Connect and/or compatible watches. Suggested implementation:
- Allow users to set a deviation threshold (e.g., alert if skin temp >+1.0°F, >+1.5°F, or >+2.0°F)
- Optionally combine with sleep score (e.g., alert only if skin temp elevated AND sleep score <50)
- Deliver as a morning notification after sleep data syncs
- Frame as "wellness insight" rather than medical diagnosis to manage liability
Why This Matters: The Elevate V5 sensor already captures this data accurately. The value is sitting unused. An alert feature could prompt users to:
- Take their temperature with a thermometer
- Monitor symptoms more closely
- Seek medical attention earlier
In my case, an alert on the morning of January 8th might have prompted me to act sooner. For someone without cardiac history, it could be the difference between catching an illness early and letting it escalate.
Closing: I understand the regulatory and liability considerations around medical alerting. But a user-configurable "pay attention" notification—clearly framed as a wellness feature, not a diagnosis—would add significant value to the data Garmin is already collecting.
I'm happy to provide my actual Garmin data or speak with your product team about this use case. I would also gladly share this story publicly if such a feature were implemented.
Thank you for considering this request.
—David Garmin Enduro 3 User