Vivosmart 5 Stress Levels Consistently HIGH

Great analysis. Using medical grade equipment to compare measurements confirms what several of us have noticed compared to other measurements from  by other non-medical grade devices. In any comparisons, though, as I have stated, Garmin (and the other device makers clearly use different proprietary algorithms, so it’s never an apples to apples situation. Garmin seems to grade harder and is less forgiving. At any rate, I think we have to consider any numbers we get from consumer devices to use longer intervals and make assumptions to extend battery life and components and accuracy of devices in the consumer price ranges are not directly comparable with medical grade equipment costing  extremely more and having much higher quality specs they have to meet. Any numbers on consumer price devices have to be considered relative and not absolute. Garmin has been in this business for a long time and makes many high end products for different markets, so our assumption is that they would be a lot closer to actual and I do believe that Garmin just grades harder than Fitbit and others because the customer base tends to be much more hard core whereas the others are likely more focused on a friendlier user experience for a slightly less active market.

Would I like to have them fix their algorithms and use more accurate measurements at shorter intervals? Definitely, but not if it seriously degraded battery life or was forced to increase their price points above what consumers would want to pay. It had to be a balancing act and both medical grade and consumer products focus more on future products than ones already released. Patches can only do so much limited to the hardware they have, so that’s just the way the world works. At least we have a consensus albeit a small group that there are limits on the technology and the collected and analyzed data is what it is. I’ve just gone to comparing it to itself and accepting that some measurements will not be perfectly accurate, but are good enough to use for most. Good but not totally accurate data is still better than no data at all and we have to accept that these are still useful and helpful devices even given their limitations. Think of it as ranges instead of absolute data points and realize that it isn’t a medical grade device and not calibrated and held to the same standards as one. These consumer grade devices are so much better than older ones and will continue to improve, but don’t ever expect to ever to totally close that gap. 

I just got my Vivosmart 5 about a week ago (returning to Garmin after many years away).  I too seem to be recording high stress upon waking and most of the day unless I sit or lie down for a sustained period.  I am on my feet constantly during most of the day.  That constitutes "'physical activity" so I suppose the stress level will remain high during sustained periods of activity and it may not be a direct correlation to me feeling stressed. I'm just busy at work, or at home or doing chores, working in the yard, etc. 

I did look in the manual and noticed that on page 8 it says:

"Your watch analyzes your heart rate variability while you are inactive to determine your overall stress. Training,

physical activity, sleep, nutrition, and general life stress all impact your stress level. The stress level range is

from 0 to 100, where 0 to 25 is a resting state, 26 to 50 is low stress, 51 to 75 is medium stress, and 76 to 100 is

a high stress state. Knowing your stress level can help you identify stressful moments throughout your day. For

best results, you should wear the watch while sleeping.

You can sync your watch with your Garmin Connect account to view your all-day stress level, long-term trends,

and additional details.

Viewing the Stress Level Widget

The stress level widget displays your current stress level.

1 Swipe to view the stress level widget.

2 Tap the touchscreen to view your stress levels for the last four hours."

Same issues.  I’m retired, have a great resting HR and strong HRV, and never had stress issues on my previous watch.  Got the Vivoactive 5 and my stress readings are dramatically higher.  I’m also being told by my sleep score that I’m having lots of stress right before sleeping.  Something seems really off.  

Same here. I’m healthy and active. My resting heart rate is almost always 50 or less. But, based on my stress's levels always being high and sleep scores always being 50 or less, I just ignore them. If I took them seriously, I’d probably be dead in a week. 

I am using Vivosmart 4 and had the last weeks a high stress level. Now it is back to normal. Though I felt not that bad I did not sleep very well because of the summer temperature. So I guess the trend was right. I was stressed though probably not that much as Vivosmart reported.

I’m glad we have had a few more posts on this issue. A couple of months ago I upgraded to a Venu3 and I can say that the measurements have been more accurate than my old Vivosmart 5. My heart rate is about 3 to 4 beats lower ( and is confirmed by wearing other watches) and my stress level is also lower and more varied which is a big change. I would still like to understand what algorithms are used for calculating this. For an active person maybe it is more accurate as more variables are taken into account, but for me with a desk based job maybe it needs fine tuning. I don’t understand whilst on my holiday sitt8ng on the beach relaxing why I am ‘stressed’. Loving the Venu 3 just wish Garmin would enable ECG in the UK. Wish this forum was easier to use on an iPad.