Out of curiosity, for those that sleep w a tracker… how much REM / Deep Sleep do you get per night?
I’ve got pretty good sleep habits (at least I think I do) , but I consistently end up w around ~45mins deep / 75mins REM / ~8mins awake per night I average 7.5hours of sleep
Everything I read says I should be almost double in the deep / REM Categories and because I’m competitive I can’t figure out why I’m so low
WDYT?
According to my 955:
I get just over 1 hour of deep
Anywhere from 30 to 75 min of REM
Average 7.5 hours a night
.
My 935 says averages are
Deep 20m
light 5h 33m
Rem 2h
Awake 18m
Total 7h 53m
.
Depends a lot on which tracker you are using…
The good trackers can tell the difference between sleep and awake. Garmin can’t even do that very well. They are totally guessing at different stages of sleep. I think Fitbit is probably the best overall tracker and guesser.
Garmin says I get about 25% REM sleep. But I also know that Garmin screws up and assigns a lot of the time I am actually awake to REM.
So, based on my prior Fitbit data and experience with Garmin, I would guess I get about 12% of REM sleep - roughly an hour/night.
Trackers aren’t really great. If you sleep well then don’t let the tracker talk you out if it.
Does your tracker show large blocks of sleep or frequent shifts. If frequent shifts with brief warmer periods so do you snore or are your sheets in disarray ? If so perhaps some sleep apnea or periodic limb movement.
Could also be alcohol or other meds. Many meds suppress REM
Depends a lot on which tracker you are using…
The good trackers can tell the difference between sleep and awake. Garmin can’t even do that very well. They are totally guessing at different stages of sleep. I think Fitbit is probably the best overall tracker and guesser.
Garmin says I get about 25% REM sleep. But I also know that Garmin screws up and assigns a lot of the time I am actually awake to REM.
So, based on my prior Fitbit data and experience with Garmin, I would guess I get about 12% of REM sleep - roughly an hour/night.
I would second all of this. I’m currently using a Garmin 245 I own and a Fitbit Charge5 provided by my medical team. The Charge5 consistently captures about 60mins of awake time throughout the night. The Garmin almost always attributes this same time to REM.
I’m considering upgrading to the 965. As long as the Garmin is consistently wrong I can at least see trends over days/weeks as I travel / the occasional beer comes into the picture.
wow! i’m jealous! I average 7hrs42min in bed. 1hr of awake time, 1hr of deep sleep, about 4 hours of light sleep and the rest REM. measured on the samsung galaxy watch and seems pretty accurate. Maybe I need to get rid of the snoring S.O. to get down to 18min of awake time? =P
Averaging 8h10m this week. 1h deep and 1h45m REM.
My sleep quality is worse on weekends as I’m more active and stay up later.
The more physical fatigue, the worse the quality of sleep and recovery. My best night of sleep is always Monday night, the night of my rest day.
As per my Garmin 955
Total Average Sleep: 8hr, 29min
Average Deep Sleep: 1hr, 3min
Average REM Sleep: 1hr, 28min
Average Light Sleep: 5hr, 58min
I am skeptical that the optical HR sensor is really capable of accurately reading these sleep stages or things like HRV. It certainly reads far too high when I run without a HR strap.
My philosophical ramblings…
Trackers aren’t really great. If you sleep well then don’t let the tracker talk you out if it.Even though they are not very accurate, they do one very valuable thing: they objectify sleep data. So, Garmin, Fitbit, Oura, whatever give you an amount of time and a score. They are not absolutely correct, but they are relatively internally consistent. So, having a couple numbers helps you see your patterns and can help motivate to improve sleep patterns looking forward (don’t drink, get to bed earlier, etc.)I’m considering upgrading to the 965. As long as the Garmin is consistently wrong I can at least see trends over days/weeks as I travel / the occasional beer comes into the picture.The 965 is awesome and worth the upgrade. It is no better than the others, but absolutely consistent with the other watches and wearables.I am skeptical that the optical HR sensor is really capable of accurately reading these sleep stages or things like HRV. It certainly reads far too high when I run without a HR strap.It is using a combination of motion detection, HR tracking, and respiratory tracking to guess sleep stages.
Depends a lot on which tracker you are using…
The good trackers can tell the difference between sleep and awake. Garmin can’t even do that very well.
My 965 does for me. It pretty much nails by “Bed Time” and “Wake Time” to the minute.
Granted I’m like C3PO. I’m unconscious before the head hits the pillow and sproing up as soon as the first hint of pre-dawn natural light comes through the window.
My 965 does for me. It pretty much nails by “Bed Time” and “Wake Time” to the minute.
Granted I’m like C3PO. I’m unconscious before the head hits the pillow and sproing up as soon as the first hint of pre-dawn natural light comes through the window.I live in a house with 2 dogs and a lot going on. Sometimes when a dog barks early, I might lie still but not sleeping for the last 1/2 hour more more of the night. Or I will wake in the middle of the night for a bit when a massive storm is raging. The Garmin will almost always call that REM, whereas the Fitbit is almost 100% accurate in assigning that to awake time. The Garmin is pretty good at getting sleep and wake times, it is just the awake time in the middle that it sucks at - and it inflates its REM time because of that.
I have a 20-month old. What is this ‘deep sleep’ thing you mentioned?
She’s has some teeth breaking through so last night was bit rough. She gave us a 4am wake up call to let us know the Advil wore off.
here is an interesting take on REM sleep for you to consider:
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/992776?ecd=mkm_ret_230614_mscpmrk-OUS_ICYMI_CA&uac=358817MV&impID=5523688&faf=1
some thought provoking thing in the article. for instance: “So do we even need REM sleep for optimal performance? Siegel believes that there is a lot of exaggeration about how great REM sleep is for our health. “People just indulge their imaginations,” he says. Blumberg points out that, in general, as long as you get enough sleep in the first place, you will get enough REM. “You can’t control the amount of REM sleep you have,” he explains.”
So maybe you have nothing to worry about regardless if your tracker is right or wrong. I figure my garmin 255 is probably nearly right about when I go to sleep and wake, the rest is just a guess.
My 955 gets the Bed time, Wake time and time awake pretty well.
I don’t have a high degree of confidence in the others but on days it says I get a lot of REM I do remember a lot dreaming.
My philosophical ramblings…
I am skeptical that the optical HR sensor is really capable of accurately reading these sleep stages or things like HRV. It certainly reads far too high when I run without a HR strap.It is using a combination of motion detection, HR tracking, and respiratory tracking to guess sleep stages.
I agree even if the data is off, it is consistent and useful for tracking trends. I don’t think the optical sensor can track respiration, though, I believe you need the strap for that.
I have a 955, which seems to be better at tracking sleep than my 945 and other devices I’ve used.
I was getting lower numbers like you compared to what the normal should be. I was going to bed later (midnight) and waking up later (8-9am…sometimes later). I did some sleep research and discovered most deep sleep comes earlier in your sleep, and the best times for deep is between 10pm and 2am. After that it is mostly light and REM sleep, and if you sleep in too long you get too much REM which I found made me not feel so good the rest of the day. Anyways about a month ago I shifted my bedtime to 10pm, and started waking up to an alarm before 7am. It made a big difference in my sleep numbers and scores! Now I regularly get 90-120mins of Deep and about 120min of REM, with sleep scores in the 90’s. More importantly I just feel better, with more energy!
The other thing I changed was what I did before going to bed. I started eating earlier in the evening, and no snacks 3 hours before bedtime, so my digestive system isn’t still busy working while trying to fall asleep. I also turn off the TV and phone an hour before bedtime to eliminate blue light, which I found really helps me fall asleep quicker and deeper.
I don’t think the optical sensor can track respiration, though, I believe you need the strap for that.The current crop of all Garmin wearables (and Fitbit’s too) track respiration through their optical wrist sensors. I get wake, sleep, and workout respiration data in Garmin Connect.
I don’t think the optical sensor can track respiration, though, I believe you need the strap for that.The current crop of all Garmin wearables (and Fitbit’s too) track respiration through their optical wrist sensors. I get wake, sleep, and workout respiration data in Garmin Connect.
Oh you’re right, it does. I stand corrected.
My Oura ring showed lots of awake time, which was my #1 reason for getting rid of it
I wake up most days in the exact same spot I went to bed in and as far as I know I don’t flap around all that much
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