Vivosmart 5 Stress Levels Consistently HIGH

Every post I can find on this is locked for some reason. Coincidence?

I’ve had my HRV measured on a couple different devices and it was always very variable and a sign of good health. But, the Vivosmart 5 has my stress levels extremely high all the time. The only rest measurements I ever see are while sleeping and less than half the time there. Besides giving me a Stress level reading that suggests I should get to a Cardiologist as soon as possible, since this is also used as a sleep quality factor I hardly even get a Sleep Score higher than 50 and a battery level higher than 25. Since the HRV numbers themselves are not displayable on this device, I have no insight into what measurements are being recorded and used. As referenced above, others have had this same or similar issue and those discussions appear to have gotten closed quite promptly.
And, yes, I’m on the most recent firmware and have done several cold restarts. I haven’t set it back to factory settings yet and started all over, which seems a bit extreme since everything else seems to be working just fine. And, my heart rate measurements are fine and consistent with other devices and my resting heart rate puts my physical age back at least 5 years. It’d be even more if I wasn’t being dinged for stress and sleep, though.

I’d be better off with the stress indicator turned off and with it not being used or at least not weighted so heavily for the Sleep score.

So, is there a known problem with this that either can’t or won’t be fixed, or am I probably going to drop dead anytime?
Is anyone else having this issue? Please respond quickly before this thread gets locked too.

0 8007664 2 months ago

Update: Nothing in my routine has changed that I’m aware of, but now the Stress number for the day is more in the 50-60% range rather than the 70+%. Body battery is also a bit higher as in hitting around 50 a couple times, but still averaging 25-30% and is usually down to 5% (which seems to be the floor) by mid-day. Sleep score is seldom higher than 50, although a couple days it did get above 70. I have plenty of deep sleep and light sleep, some REM and a few restless moments, but NO awake times at all. I only sleep about 6.5 hrs. a night without an alarm clock, but that’s my normal range and have done that consistently for the last decade. The high stress and low body battery numbers have to be dragging that number down. Just based on sleep cycles and waking up refreshed, I would expect at least a 70 almost every night. Maybe it just penalizes people who naturally sleep less than 7 hours per night.

I switched from FitBit to Garmin to get the additional measurements, but they haven’t been useful as I just have to assume they’re incorrect and ignore them. Fitbit sleep scores were always at least 70. I just ignore and adjust the numbers up or down, because they obviously aren’t correct. Only getting an hour or so of rest and only during the sleep cycle can’t be right as I have several restful periods during the day doing things I enjoy that seem to register as the maximum on the stress graph. I just don’t trust any of these measurements as being accurate and am just using them as relative to their past values and not at all reliable compared to anything else in the real world.

0 AnnieD 20 days ago in reply to 8007664

I'm dealing with a similar situation. I have a Vivosmart 5 and my stress is high all day AND all night. I rarely get any rest...I mean 5 minutes to 1 hour if I'm lucky on occasion. I am exhausted all the time though. I don't sleep well. So I assumed the stats were right. My body battery is always between 20-30 and my sleep score never over 50. I could tell it wasn't accurately tracking sleep wake cycles. So I bought a Fitbit. My Fitbit sleep scores are consistently in the 80s. But I don't see a stress measurement. So I'm at a loss. I have no way of knowing what my health measurements are.

0 8007664 20 days ago in reply to AnnieD

I think it’s obvious that different companies use different algorithms that are proprietary, so we’re not exactly comparing apples to apples. I’m happy with the Vivosmart, but if I’m not sleeping, my stress levels are always high. And, that lowers my sleep score. I guess the bottom line is that Fitbit is more forgiving and gives better numbers, but I don’t assume either is totally accurate.
I think of the numbers as relative and not absolute. I am seeing some improvements at least with the sleep numbers and definitely some up and some down days. The relative comparisons are helpful and do seem to relate to my activities. So, just go by that and accept that this platform just grades harder than Fitbit. I think that may also reflect the intended audience. Garmin seems to aim more for the hard core users and high numbers won’t make you work harder as much as lower ones would. That may be intentional as it does make you ask what you can do to score higher.