Sleep tracking is garbage

Works decently well for me. It detects falling asleep time quite well. Only the waking up time I have to go in and adjust manually in about 30% of the days, but that has more to do with my morning routine ;)  Sleep phases look OK, but I have no way of validating.

Agreed.  Just woke up from a sleep study in a clinic and am curious to see how the Garmin data compares to the actual data.  I know it's terrible at registering sleep/wake periods, but there's hope for cycle tracking.

I'd like to hear how Garmin's sleep data compares to a study clinic. 

Dismissing it as garbage with no data to back it up is pointless. Or, explain how you know when you're in each sleep stage, while you're sleeping!

Unfortunately, the sleep Dr is off till next week, so the results to compare will be a little delayed. 

It's known that Venu 2 plus sleep tracking is garbage to the point of being somewhat useless for tracking sleep stages.  But, what I can say antidotally after switching from Fitbit (which has good stage tracking) is that Sleep Score is very accurate to how I feel regardless of stages.  It can look like I've had good sleep from stages, but get a low sleep score, or have what looks to be terrible sleep, but get a good score.  The score maps well to how I feel and think it's due to using more than just stages to calculate.  This is one reason I think we'd all like to see HRV feature added (or rather revealed).

This is a good review of stage accuracy, which qualifies the garbage statement: www.youtube.com/watch

Yes my comments are anecdotal to an extent, but I know the following:

 1) I can be wide awake for several minutes and both of my Garmin devices show me as being asleep

2) My wife's Fitbit is far better at detecting when I am awake

3) The sleep stages bear no relationship to how I feel the next day. For example, the data can say I had 30 minutes deep sleep but I will feel fully refreshed. Alternatively, it can report 90 minutes or more of deep sleet and I will know I have had a mediocre night and am not well rested 

HRV already factors heavily into the Sleep Score (Stress). You just cannot see the raw numbers. 

I came here to see what I could find out about sleep tracking - totally agree w/your assessment. My Venu replaced a Fitbit Charge 4 which had MUCH more accurate sleep tracking. I am an insomniac and have a low grade shoulder injury that makes me toss and turn and wake briefly several times a night. My sleep tracking rarely reflects how much time I am awake during the night - it seems to only capture it if I get up to use the bathroom. Otherwise it calculates my "sleep" from when I lie down (even if I am awake reading)  to when I get up, which is totally inaccurate. I wondered if there were some settings I could change to increase the sensitivity of the tracking, but I guess not. I love everything about this watch except for the terrible sleep tracking.

I had a Fitbit Charge 5 before buying the Venu2plus and have been wearing both devices for some night. Results were pretty comparable.

I find that the falling asleep time is more accurate on the Venu 2S compared to my Fitbit Charge 4 but the awake time isn't quite as accurate if I don't get up right away. The good thing is it's easy to see when I wake up and adjust it. The Venu seems to show less REM sleep than the Charge 4. I can't really tell which is more accurate...

I have the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 Pro along with a Venu 2.  I find the sleep tracking on both to be quite similar after a period for the Garmin to "figure out" my sleep patterns.  Took about a week and now they're both quite in sync.  Perhaps a minute or two either way for either watch but close enough for me to use as a baseline to follow my own patterns.  I don't compare with anyone else though so complete and total accuracy isn't as important as it would be for someone who does compare with others.